TALES  OFTHE 

ENCHANTED   \NDS 


OF 


THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGClNSON 


Tales  of  the  Enchanted  Islands 
of  the  Atlantic 


Sometimes  a  maiden  held   up  an  apple  of  gold   to    Niam  and    Usheen  as  their 
slender  white  horse  dashed  across  the  waves  of  the  ocean."  —  p.  27 


Tales  of  the  Enchanted  Islands 
of  the  Atlantic 


BY 


THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON 

Author  of  "Young  Folks'  History  of  the  United  States," 

"Malbone,"  "The  Monarch  of  Dreams," 

"Cheerful  Yesterdays,"  etc. 


With  Illustrations  by  Albert  Herter 


"  Mediaeval  maps  swarmed  with  fabulous  islands  ;  and  wild  stories  of 
adventurous  voyages  divided  the  attention  with  tales  of  love  and  war." 
—  ffimor's  "  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America^ "  /,  jf. 


NEW   YORK 

THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON  :  MACMILLAN  &  Co.,  LTD. 

1898 

All  rights  reserved 


<:"t 


COPYRIGHT,  1898, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Norwood  Press 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co. — Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.   U.S.A. 


Tl 


r 


TO 

General  Sbii  (George  raentfoortfj  J^tgginson, 

Gyldernscroft)  Marloiv^  England 


THIS    BOOK    IS    INSCRIBED,    IN    TOKEN    OF    KINDRED    AND    OF 

OLD    FAMILY    FRIENDSHIPS,     CORDIALLY    PRESERVED 

INTO    THE    PRESENT    GENERATION 


THESE    LEGENDS    UNITE    THE    TWO    SIDES    OF    THE    ATLANTIC 

AND    FORM    A    PART    OF    THE    COMMON    HERITAGE 

OF    THE    ENGLISH-SPEAKING    RACE 


M 116091 


Preface 

HAWTHORNE  in  his  Wonder  Book  has  described 
the  beautiful  Greek  myths  and  traditions,  but  no 
one  has  yet  made  similar  use  of  the  wondrous 
tales  that  gathered  for  more  than  a  thousand  years 
about  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic  deep.  Although 
they  are  a  part  of  the  mythical  period  of  Ameri 
can  history,  these  hazy  legends  were  altogether 
disdained  by  the  earlier  historians;  indeed,  George 
Bancroft  made  it  a  matter  of  actual  pride  that  the 
beginning  of  the  American  annals  was  bare  and 
literal.  But  in  truth  no  national  history  has  been 
less  prosaic  as  to  its  earlier  traditions,  because 
every  visitor  had  to  cross  the  sea  to  reach  it,  and 
the  sea  has  always  been,  by  the  mystery  of  its 
horizon,  the  fury  of  its  storms,  and  the  variable 
ness  of  the  atmosphere  above  it,  the  foreordained 
land  of  romance. 

In  all  ages  and  with  all  sea-going  races  there 
has  always  been  something  especially  fascinating 
about  an  island  amid  the  ocean.  Its  very  exist 
ence  has  for  all  explorers  an  air  of  magic.  An 
island  offers  to  us  heights  rising  from  depths ;  it 

vii 


viii  Preface 

exhibits  that  which  is  most  fixed  beside  that 
which  is  most  changeable,  the  fertile  beside  the 
barren,  and  safety  after  danger.  The  ocean  for 
ever  tends  to  encroach  on  the  island,  the  island 
upon  the  ocean.  They  exist  side  by  side,  friends 
yet  enemies.  The  island  signifies  safety  in  calm, 
and  yet  danger  in  storm  ;  in  a  tempest  the  sailor 
rejoices  that  he  is  not  near  it ;  even  if  previously 
bound  for  it,  he  puts  about  and  steers  for  the  open 
sea.  Often  if  he  seeks  it  he  cannot  reach  it.  The 
present  writer  spent  a  winter  on  the  island  of 
Fayal,  and  saw  in  a  storm  a  full-rigged  ship  drift 
through  the  harbor  disabled,  having  lost  her  an 
chors;  and  it  was  a  week  before  she  again  made 
the  port. 

There  are  groups  of  islands  scattered  over  the 
tropical  ocean,  especially,  to  which  might  well  be 
given  Herman  Melville's  name,  "  Las  Encanta- 
das,"  the  Enchanted  Islands.  These  islands, 
usually  volcanic,  have  no  vegetation  but  cactuses 
or  wiry  bushes  with  strange  names ;  no  inhabitants 
but  insects  and  reptiles  —  lizards,  spiders,  snakes, 
—  with  vast  tortoises  which  seem  of  immemorial 
age,  and  are  coated  with  seaweed  and  the  slime  of 
the  ocean.  If  there  are  any  birds,  it  is  the  strange 
and  heavy  penguin,  the  passing  albatross,  or  the 
Mother  Gary's  chicken,  which  has  been  called  the 
humming  bird  of  ocean,  and  here  finds  a  place  for 


Preface  ix 

its  young.  By  night  these  birds  come  for  their 
repose ;  at  earliest  dawn  they  take  wing  and 
hover  over  the  sea,  leaving  the  isle  deserted. 
The  only  busy  or  beautiful  life  which  always  sur 
rounds  it  is  that  of  a  myriad  species  of  fish,  of  all 
forms  and  shapes,  and  often  more  gorgeous  than 
any  butterflies  in  gold  and  scarlet  and  yellow. 

Once  set  foot  on  such  an  island  and  you  begin 
at  once  to  understand  the  legends  of  enchantment 
which  ages  have  collected  around  such  spots. 
Climb  to  its  heights,  you  seem  at  the  masthead 
of  some  lonely  vessel,  kept  forever  at  sea.  You 
feel  as  if  no  one  but  yourself  had  ever  landed 
there ;  and  yet,  perhaps,  even  there,  looking 
straight  downward,  you  see  below  you  in  some 
crevice  of  the  rock  a  mast  or  spar  of  some 
wrecked  vessel,  encrusted  with  all  manner  of 
shells  and  uncouth  vegetable  growth.  No  mat 
ter  how  distant  the  island  or  how  peacefully  it 
seems  to  lie  upon  the  water,  there  may  be  per 
plexing  currents  that  ever  foam  and  swirl  about 
it  —  currents  which  are,  at  all  tides  and  in  the 
calmest  weather,  as  dangerous  as  any  tempest,  and 
which  make  compass  untrustworthy  and  helm 
powerless.  It  is  to  be  remembered  also  that  an 
island  not  only  appears  and  disappears  upon  the 
horizon  in  brighter  or  darker  skies,  but  it  varies 
its  height  and  shape,  doubles  itself  in  mirage,  or 


x  Preface 

looks  as  if  broken  asunder,  divided  into  two  or 
three.  Indeed  the  buccaneer,  Cowley,  writing  of 
one  such  island  which  he  had  visited,  says  :  "  My 
fancy  led  me  to  call  it  Cowley's  Enchanted  Isle, 
for  we  having  had  a  sight  of  it  upon  several 
points  of  the  compass,  it  appeared  always  in  so 
many  different  forms;  sometimes  like  a  ruined 
fortification ;  upon  another  point  like  a  great 
city." 

If  much  of  this  is  true  even  now,  it  was  far 
truer  before  the  days  of  Columbus,  when  men 
were  constantly  looking  westward  across  the  At 
lantic,  and  wondering  what  was  beyond.  In  those 
days,  when  no  one  knew  with  certainty  whether 
the  ocean  they  observed  was  a  sea  or  a  vast  lake, 
it  was  often  called  "  The  Sea  of  Darkness/'  A 
friend  of  the  Latin  poet,  Ovid,  describing  the 
first  approach  to  this  sea,  says  that  as  you  sail 
out  upon  it  the  day  itself  vanishes,  and  the  world 
soon  ends  in  perpetual  darkness  :  — 

"  Quo  ferimur  ?     Ruit  ipsa  dies,  orbemque  relictum 
Ultima  perpetuis  claudit  natura  tenebris." 

Nevertheless,  it  was  the  vague  belief  of  many 
nations  that  the  abodes  of  the  blest  lay  some 
where  beyond  it  —  in  the  "other  world,"  a  region 
half  earthly,  half  heavenly,  whence  the  spirits 
of  the  departed  could  not  cross  the  water  to 


Preface  xi 

return ;  —  and  so  they  were  constantly  imagining 
excursions  made  by  favored  mortals  to  enchanted 
islands.  To  add  to  the  confusion,  actual  islands 
in  the  Atlantic  were  sometimes  discovered  and 
actually  lost  again,  as,  for  instance,  the  Canaries, 
which  were  reached  and  called  the  Fortunate 
Isles  a  little  before  the  Christian  era,  and  were 
then  lost  to  sight  for  thirteen  centuries  ere  being 
visited  again. 

The  glamour  of  enchantment  was  naturally  first 
attached  by  Europeans  to  islands  within  sight  of 
their  own  shores — Irish,  Welsh,  Breton,  or  Span 
ish, —  and  then,  as  these  islands  became  better 
known,  men's  imaginations  carried  the  mystery 
further  out  over  the  unknown  western  sea.  The 
line  of  legend  gradually  extended  itself  till  it 
formed  an  imaginary  chart  for  Columbus ;  the 
aged  astronomer,  Toscanelli,  for  instance,  sug 
gesting  to  him  the  advantage  of  making  the 
supposed  island  of  Antillia  a  half-way  station ; 
just  as  it  was  proposed,  long  centuries  after,  to  find 
a  station  for  the  ocean  telegraph  in  the  equally 
imaginary  island  of  Jacquet,  which  has  only  lately 
disappeared  from  the  charts.  With  every  step  in 
knowledge  the  line  of  fancied  stopping-places  re 
arranged  itself,  the  fictitious  names  flitting  from 
place  to  place  on  the  maps,  and  sometimes  dupli 
cating  themselves.  Where  the  tradition  itself  has 


xii  Preface 

vanished  we  find  that  the  names  with  which  it 
associated  itself  are  still  assigned,  as  in  case  of 
Brazil  and  the  Antilles,  to  wholly  different 
localities. 

The  order  of  the  tales  in  the  present  work  fol 
lows  roughly  the  order  of  development,  giving 
first  the  legends  which  kept  near  the  European 
shore,  and  then  those  which,  like  St.  Brandan's 
or  Antillia,  were  assigned  to  the  open  sea  or,  like 
Norumbega  or  the  Isle  of  Demons,  to  the  very 
coast  of  America.  Every  tale  in  this  book  bears 
reference  to  some  actual  legend,  followed  more  or 
less  closely,  and  the  authorities  for  each  will  be 
found  carefully  given  in  the  appendix  for  such 
readers  as  may  care  to  follow  the  subject  farther. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  some  of  these  imag 
inary  islands  actually  remained  on  the  charts  of 
the  British  admiralty  until  within  a  century.  If 
even  the  exact  science  of  geographers  retained 
them  thus  long,  surely  romance  should  embalm 
them  forever. 


Contents 

Page 

I.  The  Story  of  Atlantis                                                     I 

II.  Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow       ...          5 

III.  The  Swan-Children  of  Lir  .          .          .          .        17 

IV.  Usheen  in  the  Island  of  Youth      .          .          .25 
V.      Bran  the  Blessed 32 

VI.  The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door      .          .                  39 

VII.  Merlin  the  Enchanter           ....        48 

VIII.  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake       ....        63 

IX.     The  Half-Man 74 

X.  King  Arthur  at  Aval  on         .          .          .          .83 

XI.  Maelduin's  Voyage    .....        96 

XII.  The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan           .          .          .108 

XIII.  Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail     .          .          .125 

XIV.  The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand    .          .          .          .134 
XV.  Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities   .                143 

XVI.      Harald  the  Viking 168 

XVII.  The  Search  for  Norumbega            .          .          .      1 86 

XVIII.  The  Guardians  of  the  St.  Lawrence        .          .196 

XIX.  The  Island  of  Demons          .          .          .          .205 

XX.  Bimini  and  the  Fountain  of  Youth          .          .220 

NOTES      .  .  .  9  .  .  .229 


List  of  Illustrations 

"  Sometimes  a  maiden  held  up  an  apple  of  gold  to  Niam 
and  Usheen,  as  their  slender  white  horse  dashed 
across  the  waves  of  the  ocean  ' '  .  .  .  Frontispiece 

Facing  page 

"  The  hands  of  Pryderi  and  Rhiannon  were  held  fast  by 
the  enchanted  bowl,  and  their  feet  by  the  enchanted 
slab  ;  and  their  joyousness  forsook  them,  and  they 
could  not  utter  a  word  "  .  .  .  .  .42 

"  Merlin,  changed  into  the  appearance  of  a  fair  young 
squire,  by  degrees  made  acquaintance  with  Vivian, 
who  told  him  who  she  was "  .  .  .  50 

"  And  the  chair  was  fastened  to  a  wheel,  and  the  wheel 
began  to  turn,  and  King  Arthur  went  down,  down 
among  the  floating  things,  and  they  wreathed  them 
selves  about  him  till  he  cried,  «  Help  !  help  ! '  "  .  85 

"The  brazen  door  made  a  sweet  and  soothing  sound, 
and  they  went  to  sleep  for  three  days  and  nights. 
On  the  fourth  day  a  maiden  came  who  was  most 
beautiful.  She  greeted  each  man  and  said,  '  It  is 
long  that  we  have  expected  you  >J  .  .  .98 

"A  demon  hand  sometimes  uprose  from  the  islet  and 
plucked  away  men  and  even  whole  boats,  which, 
when  once  grasped,  usually  by  night,  were  never 
seen  again,  but  perished  helplessly"  .  .  .139 


THE   STORY   OF   ATLANTIS 

THE   Greek  sage  Socrates,  when  he  was 
but  a  boy  minding   his   father's   goats, 
used    to    lie    on    the    grass    under    the 
myrtle  trees  ;  and,  while  the  goats  grazed  around 
him,  he  loved  to  read  over  and  over  the  story 
which    Solon,    the    law-giver    and    poet,    wrote 
down  for  the  great-grandfather  of  Socrates,  and 
which  Solon  had  always  meant   to  make  into  a 
poem,  though    he   died  without   doing   it.      But 
this  was  briefly  what  he  wrote  in  prose :  — 

"  I,  Solon,  was  never  in  my  life  so  surprised 
as  when  I  went  to  Egypt  for  instruction  in  my 
youth,  and  there,  in  the  temple  of  Sais,  saw  an 
aged  priest  who  told  me  of  the  island  of  At 
lantis,  which  was  sunk  in  the  sea  thousands  of 
years  ago.  He  said  that  in  the  division  of  the 
earth  the  gods  agreed  that  the  god  Poseidon, 
or  Neptune,  should  have,  as  his  share,  this 


2  The  Story  of  Atlantis 

great  island  which  then  lay  in  the  ocean  west 
of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  was  larger  than 
all  As>a,  There  was  a  mortal  maiden  there 
whom  Poseidon  wished  to  marry,  and  to  se 
cure  her  he  surrounded  the  valley  where  she 
dwelt  with  three  rings  of  sea  and  two  of  land 
so  that  no  one  could  enter ;  and  he  made 
underground  springs,  with  water  hot  or  cold, 
and  supplied  all  things  needful  to  the  life  of 
man.  Here  he  lived  with  her  for  many  years, 
and  they  had  ten  sons ;  and  these  sons  divided 
the  island  among  them  and  had  many  children, 
who  dwelt  there  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years.  They  had  mines  of  gold  and  silver, 
and  pastures  for  elephants,  and  many  fragrant 
plants.  They  erected  palaces  and  dug  canals; 
and  they  built  their  temples  of  white,  red,  and 
black  stone,  and  covered  them  with  gold  and 
silver.  In  these  were  statues  of  gold,  especially 
one  of  the  god  Poseidon  driving  six  winged 
horses.  He  was  so  large  as  to  touch  the  roof 
with  his  head,  and  had  a  hundred  water-nymphs 
around  him,  riding  on  dolphins.  The  islanders 
had  also  baths  and  gardens  and  sea-walls,  and 


The  Story  of  Atlantis  3 

they  had  twelve  hundred  ships  and  ten  thousand 
chariots.  All  this  was  in  the  royal  city  alone, 
and  the  people  were  friendly  and  good  and 
well-affectioned  towards  all.  But  as  time  went 
on  they  grew  less  so,  and  they  did  not  obey 
the  laws,  so  that  they  offended  heaven.  In  a 
single  day  and  night  the  island  disappeared 
and  sank  beneath  the  sea ;  and  this  is  why 
the  sea  in  that  region  grew  so  impassable  and 
impenetrable,  because  there  is  a  quantity  of 
shallow  mud  in  the  way,  and  this  was  caused 
by  the  sinking  of  a  single  vast  island. 

"This  is  the  tale,"  said  Solon,  "which  the 
old  Egyptian  priest  told  to  me."  And  Solon's 
tale  was  read  by  Socrates,  the  boy,  as  he  lay 
in  the  grass;  and  he  told  it  to  his  friends  after 
he  grew  up,  as  is  written  in  his  dialogues  re 
corded  by  his  disciple,  Plato.  And  though  this 
great  island  of  Atlantis  has  never  been  seen 
again,  yet  a  great  many  smaller  islands  have 
been  found  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  they  have 
sometimes  been  lost  to  sight  and  found  again. 

There  is,  also,  in  this  ocean  a  vast  tract  of 
floating  seaweed,  called  by  sailors  the  Sargasso 


4  The  Story  of  Atlantis 

Sea,  —  covering  a  region  as  large  as  France, 
—  and  this  has  been  thought  by  many  to  mark 
the  place  of  a  sunken  island.  There  are  also 
many  islands,  such  as  the  Azores,  which  have 
been  supposed  at  different  times  to  be  frag 
ments  of  Atlantis ;  and  besides  all  this,  the  re 
mains  of  the  vanished  island  have  been  looked 
for  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Some  writers 
have  thought  it  was  in  Sweden,  others  in  Spitz- 
bergen,  others  in  Africa,  in  Palestine,  in  Amer 
ica.  Since  the  depth  of  the  Atlantic  has  been 
more  thoroughly  sounded,  a  few  writers  have 
maintained  that  the  inequalities  of  its  floor  show 
some  traces  of  the  submerged  Atlantis,  but  the 
general  opinion  of  men  of  science  is  quite  the 
other  way.  The  visible  Atlantic  islands  are  all, 
or  almost  all,  they  say,  of  volcanic  origin;  and 
though  there  are  ridges  in  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean,  they  do  not  connect  the  continents. 

At  any  rate,  this  was  the  original  story  of 
Atlantis,  and  the  legends  which  follow  in  these 
pages  have  doubtless  all  grown,  more  or  less, 
out  of  this  first  tale  which  Socrates  told. 


II 

TALIESSIN    OF   THE   RADIANT   BROW 

IN  times  past  there  were  enchanted  islands 
in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  off  the  coast  of 
Wales,  and  even  now  the  fishermen  some 
times  think  they  see  them.  On  one  of  these 
there  lived  a  man  named  Tegid  Voel  and  his 
wife  called  Cardiwen.  They  had  a  son,  the 
ugliest  boy  in  the  world,  and  Cardiwen  formed  a 
plan  to  make  him  more  attractive  by  teaching 
him  all  possible  wisdom.  She  was  a  great  ma 
gician  and  resolved  to  boil  a  large  caldron  full  of 
knowledge  for  her  son,  so  that  he  might  know 
all  things  and  be  able  to  predict  all  that  was  to 
happen.  Then  she  thought  people  would  value 
him  in  spite  of  his  ugliness.  But  she  knew  that 
the  caldron  must  burn  a  year  and  a  day  without 
ceasing,  until  three  blessed  drops  of  the  water  of 
knowledge  were  obtained  from  it;  and  those 

5 


6  Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow 

three  drops  would  give  all  the  wisdom  she 
wanted. 

So  she  put  a  boy  named  Gwion  to  stir  the 
caldron  and  a  blind  man  named  Morda  to  feed 
the  fire ;  and  made  them  promise  never  to  let  it 
cease  boiling  for  a  year  and  a  day.  She  herself 
kept  gathering  magic  herbs  and  putting  them 
into  it.  One  day  when  the  year  was  nearly  over, 
it  chanced  that  three  drops  of  the  liquor  flew  out 
of  the  caldron  and  fell  on  the  finger  of  Gwion. 
They  were  fiery  hot,  and  he  put  his  finger  to  his 
mouth,  and  the  instant  he  tasted  them  he  knew 
that  they  were  the  enchanted  drops  for  which  so 
much  trouble  had  been  taken.  By  their  magic 
he  at  once  foresaw  all  that  was  to  come,  and 
especially  that  Cardiwen  the  enchantress  would 
never  forgive  him. 

Then  Gwion  fled.  The  caldron  burst  in  two, 
and  all  the  liquor  flowed  forth,  poisoning  some 
horses  which  drank  it.  These  horses  belonged 
to  a  king  named  Gwyddno.  Cardiwen  came  in 
and  saw,  all  the  toil  of  the  whole  year  lost. 
Seizing  a  stick  of  wood,  she  struck  the  blind  man 
Morda  fiercely  on  the  head,  but  he  said,  "  I  am 


Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow  7 

innocent.  It  was  not  I  who  did  it."  "True,0 
said  Cardiwen ;  "  it  was  the  boy  Gwion  who 
robbed  me;"  and  she  rushed  to  pursue  him. 
He  saw  her  and  fled,  changing  into  a  hare;  but 
she  became  a  greyhound  and  followed  him. 
Running  to  the  water,  he  became  a  fish;  but  she 
became  another  and  chased  him  below  the  waves. 
He  turned  himself  into  a  bird,  when  she  became 
a  hawk  and  gave  him  no  rest  in  the  sky.  Just 
as  she  swooped  on  him,  he  espied  a  pile  of  win 
nowed  wheat  on  the  floor  of  a  barn,  and  dropping 
upon  it,  he  became  one  of  the  wheat-grains. 
Changing  herself  into  a  high-crested  black  hen, 
Cardiwen  scratched  him  up  and  swallowed  him, 
when  he  changed  at  last  into  a  boy  again  and  was 
so  beautiful  that  she  could  not  kill  him  outright, 
but  wrapped  him  in  a  leathern  bag  and  cast  him 
into  the  sea,  committing  him  to  the  mercy  of 
God.  This  was  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  April. 
Now  Gwyddno  had  a  weir  for  catching  fish  on 
the  sea-strand  near  his  castle,  and  every  day  in 
May  he  was  wont  to  take  a  hundred  pounds* 
worth  of  fish.  He  had  a  son  named  Elphin, 
who  was  always  poor  and  unsuccessful,  but  that 


8  Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow 

year  the  father  had  given  the  son  leave  to  draw 
all  the  fish  from  the  weir,  to  see  if  good  luck 
would  ever  befall  him  and  give  him  something 
with  which  to  begin  the  world. 

When  Elphin  went  next  to  draw  the  weir,  the 
man  who  had  charge  of  it  said  in  pity,  "  Thou 
art  always  unlucky;  there  is  nothing  in  the  weir 
but  a  leathern  bag,  which  is  caught  on  one  of 
the  poles/'  "How  do  we  know,"  said  Elphin, 
"  that  it  may  not  contain  the  value  of  a  hundred 
pounds?"  Taking  up  the  bag  and  opening  it, 
the  man  saw  the  forehead  of  the  boy  and  said  to 
Elphin,  "  Behold,  what  a  radiant  brow  "  (Ta 
liessin).  "  Let  him  be  called  Taliessin,"  said 
Elphin.  Then  he  lifted  the  boy  and  placed  him 
sorrowfully  behind  him ;  and  made  his  horse 
amble  gently,  that  before  had  been  trotting,  and 
carried  him  as  softly  as  if  he  had  been  sitting  in 
the  easiest  chair  in  the  world,  and  the  boy  of  the 
radiant  brow  made  a  song  to  Elphin  as  they  'went 
along. 

"  Never  in  Gwyddno's  weir 

Was  there  such  good  luck  as  this  night. 

Fair  Elphin,  dry  thy  cheeks  ! 


Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow  9 

Being  too  sad  will  not  avail, 

Although  thou  thinkest  thou  hast  no  gain. 

Too  much  grief  will  bring  thee  no  good; 

Nor  doubt  the  miracles  of  the  Almighty : 

Although  I  am  but  little,  I  am  highly  gifted. 

From  seas,  and  from  mountains, 

And  from  the  depths  of  rivers, 

God  brings  wealth  to  the  fortunate  man. 

Elphin  of  lively  qualities, 

Thy  resolution  is  unmanly: 

Thou  must  not  be  oversorrowful : 

Better  to  trust  in  God  than  to  forebode  ill. 

Weak  and  small  as  I  am, 

On  the  foaming  beach  of  the  ocean, 

In  the  day  of  trouble  I  shall  be 

Of  more  service  to  thee  than  three  hundred  salmon. 

Elphin  of  notable  qualities, 

Be  not  displeased  at  thy  misfortune: 

Although  reclined  thus  weak  in  my  bag, 

There  lies  a  virtue  in  my  tongue. 

While  I  continue  thy  protector 

Thou  hast  not  much  to  fear." 

Then  Elphin  asked  him,  "  Art  thou  man  or 
spirit?"  And  in  answer  the  boy  sang  to  him 
this  tale  of  his  flight  from  the  woman:  — 


io  Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow 

u  I  have  fled  with  vigor,  I  have  fled  as  a  frog, 

I  have  fled  in  the  semblance  of  a  crow  scarcely  finding 
rest; 

I  have  fled  vehemently,  I  have  fled  as  a  chain  of  light 
ning, 

I  have  fled  as  a  roe  into  an  entangled  thicket ; 

I  have  fled  as  a  wolf-cub,  I  have  fled  as  a  wolf  in  the 
wilderness, 

I  have  fled  as  a  fox  used  to  many  swift  bounds  and 
quirks ; 

I  have  fled  as  a  martin,  which  did  not  avail; 

I  have  fled  as  a  squirrel  that  vainly  hides, 

I  have  fled  as  a  stag's  antler,  of  ruddy  course, 

I  have  fled  as  an  iron  in  a  glowing  fire, 

I  have  fled  as  a  spear-head,  of  woe  to  such  as  have  a 
wish  for  it; 

I  have  fled  as  a  fierce  bull  bitterly  fighting, 

I  have  fled  as  a  bristly  boar  seen  in  a  ravine, 

I  have  fled  as  a  white  grain  of  pure  wheat; 

Into  a  dark  leathern  bag  I  was  thrown, 

And  on  a  boundless  sea  I  was  sent  adrift; 

Which  was  to  me  an  omen  of  being  tenderly  nursed, 

And  the  Lord  God  then  set  me  at  liberty." 

Then  Elphin  came  with  Taliessin  to  the  house 
of  his  father,  and  Gwyddno  asked  him  if  he  had  a 
good  haul  at  the  fish-weir.  "  I  have  something 


Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow  1 1 

better  than  fish."  "  What  is  that  ?  "  asked  the 
father.  "  I  have  a  bard,"  said  Elphin.  "Alas, 
what  will  he  profit  thee  ? "  said  Gwyddno,  to 
which  Taliessin  replied,  "  He  will  profit  him 
more  than  the  weir  ever  profited  thee."  Said 
Gwyddno,  "  Art  thou  able  to  speak,  and  thou 
so  little  ? "  Then  Taliessin  said,  "  I  am  better 
able  to  speak  than  thou  to  question  me." 

From  this  time  Elphin  always  prospered,  and 
he  and  his  wife  cared  for  Taliessin  tenderly  and 
lovingly,  and  the  boy  dwelt  with  him  until  he 
was  thirteen  years  old,  when  Elphin  went  to 
make  a  Christmas  visit  to  his  uncle  Maelgwyn, 
who  was  a  great  king  and  held  open  court. 
There  were  four  and  twenty  bards  there,  and  all 
proclaimed  that  no  king  had  a  wife  so  beautiful 
as  the  queen,  or  a  bard  so  wise  as  the  twenty- 
four,  who  all  agreed  upon  this  decision.  Elphin 
said,  on  the  contrary,  that  it  was  he  himself  who 
had  the  most  beautiful  wife  and  the  wisest  bard, 
and  for  this  he  was  thrown  into  prison.  Ta 
liessin  learning  this,  set  forth  from  home  to  visit 
the  palace  and  free  his  adoptive  father,  Elphin. 

In  those  days  it  was  the  custom  of  kings  to 


12  Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow 

sit  in  the  hall  and  dine  in  royal  state  with  lords 
and  bards  about  them  who  should  keep  pro 
claiming  the  greatness  and  glory  of  the  king  and 
his  knights.  Taliessin  placed  himself  in  a  quiet 
corner,  waiting  for  the  four  and  twenty  bards  to 
pass,  and  as  each  one  passed  by,  Taliessin  made 
an  ugly  face,  and  gave  a  sound  with  his  ringer 
on  his  lips,  thus,  "  Blerwm,  Blerwm."  Each  bard 
went  by  and  bowed  himself  before  the  king,  but 
instead  of  beginning  to  chant  his  praises,  could 
only  play  "  Blerwm,  Blerwm  "  on  the  lips,  as  the 
boy  had  done.  The  king  was  amazed  and 
thought  they  must  be  intoxicated,  so  he  sent  one 
of  his  lords  to  them,  telling  them  to  behave 
themselves  and  remember  where  they  were. 
Twice  and  thrice  he  told  them,  but  they  could 
only  repeat  the  same  foolishness,  until  at  last  the 
king  ordered  one  of  his  squires  to  give  a  blow  to 
the  chief  bard,  and  the  squire  struck  him  a  blow 
with  a  broom,  so  that  he  fell  back  on  his  seat. 
Then  he  arose  and  knelt  before  the  king,  and 
said,  "  Oh,  honorable  king ,  be  it  known  unto 
your  grace  that  it  is  not  from  too  much  drinking 
that  we  are  dumb,  but  through  the  influence  of  a 


Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow  13 

spirit  which  sits  in  the  corner  yonder  in  the  form 
of  a  child."  Then  the  king  bade  a  squire  to 
bring  Taliessin  before  him,  and  he  asked  the  boy 
who  he  was.  He  answered:  — 

"  Primary  chief  bard  I  am  to  Elphin, 
And  my  original  country  is  the  region  of  the  summer 

stars ; 

I  am  a  wonder  whose  origin  is  not  known ; 
I  have  been  fostered  in  the  land  of  the  Deity, 
I  have  been  teacher  to  all  intelligences, 
I  am  able  to  instruct  the  whole  universe. 
I  was  originally  little  Gwion, 
And  at  length  I  am  Taliessin." 

Then  the  king  and  his  nobles  wondered  much, 
for  they  had  never  heard  the  like  from  a  boy  so 
young.  The  king  then  called  his  wisest  bard  to 
answer  Taliessin,  but  he  could  only  play 
"  Blerwm  "  on  his  lips  as  before,  and  each  of  the 
king's  four  and  twenty  bards  tried  in  the  same 
way  and  could  do  nothing  more.  Then  the 
king  bade  Taliessin  sing  again,  and  he  began:  — 

"  Discover  thou  what  is 
The  strong  creature  from  before  the  flood, 


14  Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow 

Without  flesh,  without  bone, 

Without  vein,  without  blood, 

Without  head,  without  feet; 

It  will  neither  be  older  nor  younger 

Than  at  the  beginning; 

Great  God !  how  the  sea  whitens 

When  first  it  comes ! 

Great  are  its  gusts 

When  it  comes  from  the  south ; 

Great  are  its  evaporations 

When  it  strikes  on  coasts. 

It  is  in  the  field,  it  is  in  the  wood, 

Without  hand  and  without  foot, 

Without  signs  of  old  age, 

It  is  also  so  wide, 

As  the  surface  of  the  earth; 

And  it  was  not  born, 

Nor  was  it  seen. 

It  will  cause  consternation 

Wherever  God  willeth. 

On  sea  and  on  land 

It  neither  sees,  nor  is  seen. 

Its  course  is  devious, 

And  will  not  come  when  desired. 

On  land  and  on  sea 

It  is  indispensable. 

It  is  without  equal, 


Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow  15 

It  is  many-sided  ; 

It  is  not  confined, 

It  is  incomparable; 

It  comes  from  four  quarters ; 

It  is  noxious,  it  is  beneficial*, 

It  is  yonder,  it  is  here ; 

It  will  decompose, 

But  it  will  not  repair  the  injury; 

It  will  not  suffer  for  its  doings, 

Seeing  it  is  blameless. 

One  Being  has  prepared  it, 

Out  of  all  creatures, 

By  a  tremendous  blast, 

To  wreak  vengeance 

On  Maelgwyn  Gwynedd." 

And  while  he  was  thus  singing  his  verse  near 
the  door,  there  came  suddenly  a  mighty  storm  of 
wind,  so  that  the  king  and  all  his  nobles  thought 
the  castle  would  fall  on  their  heads.  They  saw 
that  Taliessin  had  not  merely  been  singing  the 
song  of  the  wind,  but  seemed  to  have  power  to 
command  it.  Then  the  king  hastily  ordered 
that  Elphin  should  be  brought  from  his  dungeon 
and  placed  before  Taliessin,  and  the  chains 
came  loose  from  his  feet,  and  he  was  set  free. 


1 6  Taliessin  of  the  Radiant  Brow 

As  they  rode  away  from  the  court,  the  king 
and  his  courtiers  rode  with  them,  and  Taliessin 
bade  Elphin  propose  a  race  with  the  king's 
horses.  Four  and  twenty  horses  were  chosen, 
and  Taliessin  got  four  and  twenty  twigs  of  holly 
which  he  had  burnt  black,  and  he  ordered  the 
youth  who  was  to  ride  Elphin's  horse  to  let  all 
the  others  set  off  before  him,  and  bade  him  as  he 
overtook  each  horse  to  strike  him  with  a  holly 
twig  and  throw  it  down.  Then  he  had  him 
watch  where  his  own  horse  should  stumble  and 
throw  down  his  cap  at  the  place.  The  race 
being  won,  Taliessin  brought  his  master  to  the 
spot  where  the  cap  lay ;  and  put  workmen  to  dig 
a  hole  there.  When  they  had  dug  deeply 
enough  they  found  a  caldron  full  of  gold,  and 
Taliessin  said,  "  Elphin,  this  is  my  payment  to 
thee  for  having  taken  me  from  the  water  and 
reared  me  until  now."  And  on  this  spot  stands 
a  pool  of  water  until  this  day. 


Ill 

THE   SWAN-CHILDREN   OF   LIR 

KING  LIR  of  Erin  had  four  young  chil 
dren  who  were  cared  for  tenderly  at  first 

by  their  stepmother,  the  new  queen;  but 
there  came  a  time  when  she  grew  jealous  of  the 
love  their  father  bore  them,  and  resolved  that  she 
would  endure  it  no  longer.  Sometimes  there 
was  murder  in  her  heart,  but  she  could  not  bear 
the  thought  of  that  wickedness,  and  she  resolved 
at  last  to  choose  another  way  to  rid  herself  of 
them.  One  day  she  took  them  to  drive  in  her 
chariot :  —  Finola,  who  was  eight  years  old,  with 
her  three  younger  brothers,  —  Aodh,  Fiacre,  and 
little  Conn,  still  a  baby.  They  were  beautiful 
children,  the  legend  says,  with  skins  white  and 
soft  as  swans'  feathers,  and  with  large  blue  eyes 
and  very  sweet  voices.  Reaching  a  lake,  she 
told  them  that  they  might  bathe  in  the  clear 

c  17 


1 8  The  Swan-Children  of  Lir 

water ;  but  so  soon  as  they  were  in  it  she  struck 
them  with  a  fairy  wand,  —  for  she  was  of  the  race 
of  the  Druids,  who  had  magical  power, — and  she 
turned  them  into  four  beautiful  snow-white 
swans.  But  they  still  had  human  voices,  and 
Finola  said  to  her,  "  This  wicked  deed  of  thine 
shall  be  punished,  for  the  doom  that  awaits  thee 
will  surely  be  worse  than  ours."  Then  Finola 
asked,  "  How  long  shall  we  be  in  the  shape  of 
swans?"  "For  three  hundred  years,"  said  the 
woman,  "on  smooth  Lake  Darvra;  then  three 
hundred  years  on  the  sea  of  Moyle"  (this  being 
the  sea  between  Ireland  and  Scotland) ;  "  and  then 
three  hundred  years  at  Inis  Glora,  in  the  Great 
Western  Sea"  (this  was  a  rocky  island  in  the 
Atlantic).  "  Until  the  Tailkenn  (St.  Patrick)  shall 
come  to  Ireland  and  bring  the  Christian  faith, 
and  until  you  hear  the  Christian  bell,  you  shall 
not  be  freed.  Neither  your  power  nor  mine  can 
now  bring  you  back  to  human  shape;  but  you 
shall  keep  your  human  reason  and  your  Gaelic 
speech,  and  you  shall  sing  music  so  sweet  that 
all  who  hear  it  shall  gladly  listen." 

She  left  them,  and  ere  long  their  father,  King 


The  Swan-Children  of  Lir  19 

Lir,  came  to  the  shore  and  heard  their  singing. 
He  asked  how  they  came  to  have  human  voices. 
"  We  are  thy  four  children,"  said  Finola, 
"  changed  into  swans  by  our  stepmother's  jeal 
ousy."  "  Then  come  and  live  with  me,"  said 
her  sorrowing  father.  "  We  are  not  permitted  to 
leave  the  lake,"  she  said,  "  or  live  with  our  people 
any  more.  But  we  are  allowed  to  dwell  together 
and  to  keep  our  reason  and  our  speech,  and  to 
sing  sweet  music  to  you."  Then  they  sang,  and 
the  king  and  all  his  followers  were  at  first 
amazed  and  then  lulled  to  sleep. 

Then  King  Lir  returned  and  met  the  cruel 
stepmother  at  her  father's  palace.  When  her 
father,  King  Bove,  was  told  what  she  had  done, 
he  was  hot  with  anger.  "  This  wicked  deed,"  he 
said,  "  shall  bring  severer  punishment  on  thee 
than  on  the  innocent  children,  for  their  suffering 
shall  end,  but  thine  never  shall."  Then  King 
Bove  asked  her  what  form  of  existence  would 
be  most  terrible  to  her.  She  replied,  "That 
of  a  demon  of  the  air."  "  Be  it  so,"  said  her 
father,  who  had  also  Druidical  power.  He  struck 
her  with  his  wand,  and  she  became  a  bat,  and  flew 


2o  The  Swan-Children  of  Lir 

away  with  a  scream,  and  the  legend  says,  "  She  is 
still  a  demon  of  the  air  and  shall  be  a  demon  of 
the  air  until  the  end  of  time." 

After  this,  the  people  of  all  the  races  that  were 
in  Erin  used  to  come  and  encamp  by  the  lake 
and  listen  to  the  swans.  The  happy  were  made 
happier  by  the  song,  and  those  who  were  in  grief 
or  illness  or  pain  forgot  their  sorrows  and  were 
lulled  to  rest.  There  was  peace  in  all  that  re 
gion,  while  war  and  tumult  rilled  other  lands. 
Vast  changes  took  place  in  three  centuries  — 
towers  and  castles  rose  and  fell,  villages  were 
built  and  destroyed,  generations  were  born  and 
died; — and  still  the  swan-children  lived  and  sang, 
until  at  the  end  of  three  hundred  years  they  flew 
away,  as  was  decreed,  to  the  stormy  sea  of  Moyle  ; 
and  from  that  time  it  was  made  a  law  that  no  one 
should  kill  a  swan  in  Erin. 

Beside  the  sea  of  Moyle  they  found  no  longer 
the  peaceful  and  wooded  shores  they  had  known, 
but  only  steep  and  rocky  coasts  and  a  wild,  wild 
sea.  There  came  a  great  storm  one  night,  and 
the  swans  knew  that  they  could  not  keep  together, 
so  they  resolved  that  if  separated  they  would  meet 


The  Swan-Children  of  Lir  21 

at  a  rock  called  Carricknarone.  Finola  reached 
there  first,  and  took  her  brothers  under  her  wings, 
all  wet,  shivering,  and  exhausted.  Many  such 
nights  followed,  and  in  one  terrible  winter  storm, 
when  they  nestled  together  on  Carricknarone,  the 
water  froze  into  solid  ice  around  them,  and  their 
feet  and  wings  were  so  frozen  to  the  rock  that 
when  they  moved  they  left  the  skin  of  their  feet, 
the  quills  of  their  wings,  and  the  feathers  of  their 
breasts  clinging  there.  When  the  ice  melted, 
and  they  swam  out  into  the  sea,  their  bodies 
smarted  with  pain  until  the  feathers  grew  once 
more. 

One  day  they  saw  a  glittering  troop  of  horse 
men  approaching  along  the  shore  and  knew  that 
they  were  their  own  kindred,  though  from  far 
generations  back,  the  Dedannen  or  Fairy  Host. 
They  greeted  each  other  with  joy,  for  the  Fairy 
Host  had  been  sent  to  seek  for  the  swans ;  and 
on  returning  to  their  chiefs  they  narrated  what 
had  passed,  and  the  chiefs  said,  "  We  cannot 
help  them,  but  we  are  glad  they  are  living ;  and 
we  know  that  at  last  the  enchantment  will  be 
broken  and  that  they  will  be  freed  from  their 


22  The  Swan-Children  of  Lir 

sorrows."  So  passed  their  lives  until  Finola 
sang,  one  day,  "  The  Second  Woe  has  passed  — 
the  second  period  of  three  hundred  years,"  when 
they  flew  out  on  the  broad  ocean,  as  was  decreed, 
and  went  to  the  island  of  Inis  Glora.  There 
they  spent  the  next  three  hundred  years,  amid 
yet  wilder  storms  and  yet  colder  winds.  No  more 
the  peaceful  shepherds  and  living  neighbors  were 
around  them  ;  but  often  the  sailor  and  fisherman, 
in  his  little  coracle,  saw  the  white  gleam  of  their 
wings  or  heard  the  sweet  notes  of  their  song  and 
knew  that  the  children  of  Lir  were  near. 

But  the  time  came  when  the  nine  hundred 
years  of  banishment  were  ended,  and  they  might 
fly  back  to  their  father's  old  home,  Finnaha. 
Flying  for  days  above  the  sea,  they  alighted  at 
the  palace  once  so  well  known,  but  everything 
was  changed  by  time  —  even  the  walls  of  their 
father's  palace  were  crumbled  and  rain-washed. 
So  sad  was  the  sight  that  they  remained  one  day 
only,  and  flew  back  to  Inis  Glora,  thinking  that 
if  they  must  be  forever  solitary,  they  would  live 
where  they  had  lived  last,  not  where  they  had 
been  reared. 


The  Swan-Children  of  Lir  23 

One  May  morning,  as  the  children  of  Lir 
floated  in  the  air  around  the  island  of  Inis  Glora, 
they  heard  a  faint  bell  sounding  across  the  east 
ern  sea.  The  mist  lifted,  and  they  saw  afar  off, 
beyond  the  waves,  a  vision  of  a  stately  white- 
robed  priest,  with  attendants  around  him  on  the 
Irish  shore.  They  knew  that  it  must  be  St.  Pat 
rick,  the  Tailkenn,  or  Tonsured  One,  who  was 
bringing,  as  had  been  so  long  promised,  Christian 
ity  to  Ireland.  Sailing  through  the  air,  above  the 
blue  sea,  towards  their  native  coast,  they  heard  the 
bell  once  more,  now  near  and  distinct,  and  they 
knew  that  all  evil  spirits  were  fleeing  away,  and 
that  their  own  hopes  were  to  be  fulfilled.  As 
they  approached  the  land,  St.  Patrick  stretched 
his  hand  and  said,  "  Children  of  Lir,  you  may 
tread  your  native  land  again."  And  the  sweet 
swan-sister,  Finola,  said,  "If we  tread  our  native 
land,  it  can  only  be  to  die,  after  our  life  of  nine 
centuries.  Baptize  us  while  we  are  yet  living." 
When  they  touched  the  shore,  the  weight  of  all 
those  centuries  fell  upon  them;  they  resumed 
their  human  bodies,  but  they  appeared  old 
and  pale  and  wrinkled.  Then  St.  Patrick  bap- 


24  The  Swan-Children  of  Lir 

tized  them,  and  they  died ;  but,  even  as  he  did 
so,  a  change  swiftly  came  over  them ;  and  they 
lay  side  by  side,  once  more  children,  in  their 
white  night-clothes,  as  when  their  father  Lir, 
long  centuries  ago,  had  kissed  them  at  evening 
and  seen  their  blue  eyes  close  in  sleep  and  had 
touched  with  gentle  hand  their  white  foreheads 
and  their  golden  hair.  Their  time  of  sorrow  was 
ended  and  their  last  swan-song  was  sung ;  but 
the  cruel  stepmother  seems  yet  to  survive  in  her 
bat-like  shape,  and  a  single  glance  at  her  weird 
and  malicious  little  face  will  lead  us  to  doubt 
whether  she  has  yet  fully  atoned  for  her  sin. 


IV 

USHEEN   IN   THE   ISLAND    OF   YOUTH 

THE   old   Celtic   hero   and   poet   Usheen 
or    Oisin,  whose    supposed    songs    are 
known  in  English  as   those  of  Ossian, 
lived  to  a  great  old  age,  surviving  all  others  of 
the  race  of  the  Feni,  to  which  he  belonged ;  and 
he  was  asked  in  his  last  years  what  had  given  him 
such  length  of  life.     This  is  the  tale  he  told:  — 

After  the  fatal  battle  of  Gavra,  in  which  most 
of  the  Feni  were  killed,  Usheen  and  his  father, 
the  king,  and  some  of  the  survivors  of  the  battle 
were  hunting  the  deer  with  their  dogs,  when  they 
met  a  maiden  riding  on  a  slender  white  horse 
with  hoofs  of  gold,  and  with  a  golden  crescent 
between  his  ears.  The  maiden's  hair  was  of  the 
color  of  citron  and  was  gathered  in  a  silver  band; 
and  she  was  clad  in  a  white  garment  embroidered 
with  strange  devices.  She  asked  them  why  they 

25 


16  Usheen  in  the  Island  of  Youth 

rode  slowly  and  seemed  sad,  and  not  like  other 
hunters  ;  and  they  replied  that  it  was  because  of 
the  death  of  their  friends  and  the  ruin  of  their 
race.  When  they  asked  her  in  turn  whence  she 
came,  and  why,  and  whether  she  was  married, 
she  replied  that  she  had  never  had  a  lover  or  a 
husband,  but  that  she  had  crossed  the  sea  for  the 
love  of  the  great  hero  and  bard  Usheen,  whom  she 
had  never  seen.  Then  Usheen  was  overcome 
with  love  for  her,  but  she  said  that  to  wed  her  he 
must  follow  her  across  the  sea  to  the  Island  of 
Perpetual  Youth.  There  he  would  have  a  hun 
dred  horses  and  a  hundred  sheep  and  a  hundred 
silken  robes,  a  hundred  swords,  a  hundred  bows, 
and  a  hundred  youths  to  follow  him;  while  she 
would  have  a  hundred  maidens  to  wait  on  her. 
But  how,  he  asked,  was  he  to  reach  this  island  ? 
He  was  to  mount  her  horse  and  ride  behind  her. 
So  he  did  this,  and  the  slender  white  horse,  not 
feeling  his  weight,  dashed  across  the  waves  of 
the  ocean,  which  did  not  yield  beneath  his 
tread.  They  galloped  across  the  very  sea,  and 
the  maiden,  whose  name  was  Niam,  sang  to  him 
as  they  rode,  and  this  so  enchantingly  that  he 


Usheen  in  the  Island  of  Youth  27 

scarcely  knew  whether  hours  passed  or  days. 
Sometimes  deer  ran  by  them  over  the  water,  fol 
lowed  by  red-eared  hounds  in  full  chase;  some 
times  a  maiden  holding  up  an  apple  of  gold ; 
sometimes  a  beautiful  youth;  but  they  them 
selves  rode  on  always  westward. 

At  last  they  drew  near  an  island  which  was 
not,  Niam  said,  the  island  they  were  seeking ; 
but  it  was  one  where  a  beautiful  princess  was 
kept  under  a  spell  until  some  defender  should 
slay  a  cruel  giant  who  held  her  under  enchant 
ment  until  she  should  either  wed  him  or  furnish 
a  defender.  The  youth  Usheen,  being  an  Irish 
man  and  not  easily  frightened,  naturally  offered 
his  services  as  defender,  and  they  waited  three 
days  and  nights  to  carry  on  the  conflict.  He 
had  fought  at  home — so  the  legend  says  —  with 
wild  boars,  with  foreign  invaders,  and  with  en 
chanters,  but  he  never  had  quite  so  severe  a 
contest  as  with  this  giant;  but  after  he  had  cut 
off  his  opponent's  head  and  had  been  healed  with 
precious  balm  by  the  beautiful  princess,  he  buried 
the  giant's  body  in  a  deep  grave  and  placed 
above  it  a  great  stone  engraved  in  the  Ogham 


28  Usheen  in  the  Island  of  Youth 

alphabet  —  in  which  all  the  letters  are  given  in 
straight  lines. 

After  this  he  and  Niam  again  mounted  the 
white  steed  and  galloped  away  over  the  waves. 
Niam  was  again  singing,  when  soft  music  began 
to  be  heard  in  the  distance,  as  if  in  the  centre  of 
the  setting  sun.  They  drew  nearer  and  nearer 
to  a  shore  where  the  very  trees  trembled  with 
the  multitude  of  birds  that  sang  upon  them  ;  and 
when  they  reached  the  shore,  Niam  gave  one 
note  of  song,  and  a  band  of  youths  and  maidens 
came  rushing  towards  them  and  embraced  them 
with  eagerness.  Then  they  too  sang,  and  as 
they  did  it,  one  brought  to  Usheen  a  harp  of 
silver  and  bade  him  sing  of  earthly  joys.  He 
found  himself  chanting,  as  he  thought,  with  pe 
culiar  spirit  and  melody,  but  as  he  told  them  of 
human  joys  they  kept  still  and  began  to  weep, 
till  at  last  one  of  them  seized  the  silver  harp  and 
flung  it  away  into  a  pool  of  water,  saying,  "  It  is 
the  saddest  harp  in  all  the  world." 

Then  he  forgot  all  the  human  joys  which 
seemed  to  those  happy  people  only  as  sorrows 
compared  with  their  own ;  and  he  dwelt  with 


Usheen  in  the  Island  of  Youth  29 

them  thenceforward  in  perpetual  youth.  For  a 
hundred  years  he  chased  the  deer  and  went  fish 
ing  in  strangely  carved  boats  and  joined  in  the 
athletic  sports  of  the  young  men;  for  a  hundred 
years  the  gentle  Niam  was  his  wife. 

But  one  day,  when  Usheen  was  by  the  beach, 
there  floated  to  his  feet  what  seemed  a  wooden 
staff,  and  he  drew  it  from  the  waves  It  was  the 
battered  fragment  of  a  warrior's  lance.  The 
blood  stains  of  war  were  still  on  it,  and  as  he 
looked  at  it  he  recalled  the  old  days  of  the  Feni, 
the  wars  and  tumult  of  his  youth ;  and  how  he 
had  outlived  his  tribe  and  all  had  passed  away. 
Niam  came  softly  to  him  and  rested  against  his 
shoulder,  but  it  did  not  soothe  his  pain,  and  he 
heard  one  of  the  young  men  watching  him  say  to 
another,  "  The  human  sadness  has  come  back 
into  his  eyes."  The  people  around  stood  watch 
ing  him,  all  sharing  his  sorrow,  and  knowing 
that  his  time  of  happiness  was  over  and  that  he 
would  go  back  among  men.  So  indeed  it  was ; 
Niam  and  Usheen  mounted  the  white  steed 
again  and  galloped  away  over  the  sea,  but  she 
had  warned  him  when  they  mounted  that  he 


30  Usheen  in  the  Island  of  Youth 

must  never  dismount  for  an  instant,  for  that  if 
he  once  touched  the  earth,  she  and  the  steed 
would  vanish  forever,  that  his  youth  too  would 
disappear,  and  that  he  would  be  left  alone  on 
earth  —  an  old  man  whose  whole  generation  had 
vanished. 

They  passed,  as  before,  over  the  sea ;  the  same 
visions  hovered  around  them,  youths  and  maidens 
and  animals  of  the  chase;  they  passed  by  many 
islands,  and  at  last  reached  the  shore  of  Erin 
again.  As  they  travelled  over  its  plains  and 
among  its  hills,  Oisin  looked  in  vain  for  his  old 
companions.  A  little  people  had  taken  their 
place,  —  small  men  and  women,  mounted  on 
horses  as  small;  —  and  these  people  gazed  in  won 
der  at  the  mighty  Usheen.  cc  We  have  heard," 
they  said,  cc  of  the  hero  Finn,  and  the  poets  have 
written  many  tales  of  him  and  of  his  people,  the 
Feni.  We  have  read  in  old  books  that  he  had  a 
son  Usheen  who  went  away  with  a  fairy  maiden  ; 
but  he  was  never  seen  again,  and  there  is  no  race 
of  the  Feni  left."  Yet  refusing  to  believe  this, 
and  always  looking  round  for  the  people  whom 
he  had  known  and  loved  of  old,  he  thought 


Usheen  in  the  Island  of  Youth  31 

within  himself  that  perhaps  the  Feni  were  not  to 
be  seen  because  they  were  hunting  fierce  wolves 
by  night,  as  they  used  to  do  in  his  boyhood,  and 
that  they  were  therefore  sleeping  in  the  daytime; 
but  again  an  old  man  said  to  him,  "  The  Feni 
are  dead."  Then  he  remembered  that  it  was  a 
hundred  years,  and  that  his  very  race  had  per 
ished,  and  he  turned  with  contempt  on  the  little 
men  and  their  little  horses.  Three  hundred  of 
them  as  he  rode  by  were  trying  to  lift  a  vast 
stone,  but  they  staggered  under  its  weight,  and  at 
last  fell  and  lay  beneath  it;  then  leaning  from  his 
saddle  Usheen  lifted  the  stone  with  one  hand  and 
flung  it  five  yards.  But  with  the  strain  the 
saddle  girth  broke,  and  Usheen  came  to  the 
ground ;  the  white  steed  shook  himself  and 
neighed,  then  galloped  away,  bearing  Niam  with 
him,  and  Usheen  lay  with  all  his  strength  gone 
from  him  —  a  feeble  old  man.  The  Island  of 
Youth  could  only  be  known  by  those  who  dwelt 
always  within  it,  and  those  mortals  who  had  once 
left  it  could  dwell  there  no  more. 


BRAN   THE   BLESSED 

THE  mighty  king  Bran,  a  being  of  gi 
gantic  size,  sat  one  day  on  the  cliffs  of 
his  island  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  near 
to  Hades  and  the  Gates  of  Night,  when  he  saw 
ships  sailing  towards  him  and  sent  men  to  ask 
what  they  were.  They  were  a  fleet  sent  by 
Matholweh,  the  king  of  Ireland,  who  had  sent 
to  ask  for  Branwen,  Bran's  sister,  as  his  wife. 
Without  moving  from  his  rock  Bran  bid  the 
monarch  land,  and  sent  Branwen  back  with  him 
as  queen. 

But  there  came  a  time  when  Branwen  was  ill- 
treated  at  the  palace;  they  sent  her  into  the 
kitchen  and  made  her  cook  for  the  court,  and 
they  caused  the  butcher  to  come  every  day  (after 
he  had  cut  up  the  meat)  and  give  her  a  blow  on 
the  ear.  They  also  drew  up  all  their  boats  on 
the  shore  for  three  years,  that  she  might  not  send 

32 


Rran  the  Blessed  33 

for  her  brother.  But  she  reared  a  starling  in  the 
cover  of  the  kneading-trough,  taught  it  to  speak, 
and  told  it  how  to  find  her  brother;  and  then 
she  wrote  a  letter  describing  her  sorrows  and 
bound  it  to  the  bird's  wing,  and  it  flew  to  the 
island  and  alighted  on  Bran's  shoulder,  "  ruffling 
its  feathers"  (says  the  Welsh  legend)  "so  that 
the  letter  was  seen,  and  they  knew  that  the  bird 
had  been  reared  in  a  domestic  manner."  Then 
Bran  resolved  to  cross  the  sea,  but  he  had  to 
wade  through  the  water,  as  no  ship  had  yet  been 
built  large  enough  to  hold  him ;  and  he  carried 
all  his  musicians  (pipers)  on  his  shoulders.  As 
he  approached  the  Irish  shore,  men  ran  to  the 
king,  saying  that  they  had  seen  a  forest  on  the 
sea,  where  there  never  before  had  been  a  tree,  and 
that  they  had  also  seen  a  mountain  which  moved. 
Then  the  king  asked  Branwen,  the  queen,  what 
it  could  be.  She  answered,  "  These  are  the  men 
of  the  Island  of  the  Mighty,  who  have  come 
hither  to  protect  me."  "What  is  the  forest?" 
they  asked.  "The  yards  and  masts  of  ships." 
"What  mountain  is  that  by  the  side  of  the 
ships  ?  "  "  It  is  Bran  my  brother,  coming  to  the 


34 


Bran  the  Blessed 


shoal  water  and  rising."  "What  is  the  lofty 
ridge  with  the  lake  on  each  side  ?  "  "  That  is 
his  nose,"  she  said,  "and  the  two  lakes  are  his 
fierce  eyes/' 

Then  the  people  were  terrified:  there  was  yet 
a  river  for  Bran  to  pass,  and  they  broke  down 
the  bridge  which  crossed  it,  but  Bran  laid  him 
self  down  and  said,  "  Who  will  be  a  chief,  let  him 
be  a  bridge."  Then  his  men  laid  hurdles  on  his 
back,  and  the  whole  army  crossed  over;  and  that 
saying  of  his  became  afterwards  a  proverb. 
Then  the  Irish  resolved,  in  order  to  appease  the 
mighty  visitor,  to  build  him  a  house,  because  he 
had  never  before  had  one  that  would  hold  him ; 
and  they  decided  to  make  the  house  large 
enough  to  contain  the  two  armies,  one  on  each 
side.  They  accordingly  built  this  house,  and 
there  were  a  hundred  pillars,  and  the  builders 
treacherously  hung  a  leathern  bag  on  each  side 
of  each  pillar  and  put  an  armed  man  inside  of 
each,  so  that  they  could  all  rise  by  night  and  kill 
the  sleepers.  But  Bran's  brother,  who  was  a 
suspicious  man,  asked  the  builder  what  was 
in  the  first  bag.  "  Meal,  good  soul,"  they 


Bran  the  Blessed  35 

answered ;  and  he,  putting  his  hand  in,  felt  a 
man's  head  and  crushed  it  with  his  mighty  fin 
gers,  and  so  with  the  next  and  the  next  and  with 
the  whole  two  hundred.  After  this  it  did  not 
take  long  to  bring  on  a  quarrel  between  the  two 
armies,  and  they  fought  all  day. 

After  this  great  fight  between  the  men  of  Ire 
land  and  the  men  of  the  Isles  of  the  Mighty 
there  were  but  seven  of  these  last  who  escaped, 
besides  their  king  Bran,  who  was  wounded  in  the 
foot  with  a  poisoned  dart.  Then  he  knew  that 
he  should  soon  die,  but  he  bade  the  seven  men 
to  cut  off  his  head  and  told  them  that  they  must 
always  carry  it  with  them  —  that  it  would  never 
decay  and  would  always  be  able  to  speak  and  be 
pleasant  company  for  them.  "A  long  time  will 
you  be  on  the  road,"  he  said.  "  In  Harlech  you 
will  feast  seven  years,  the  birds  of  Rhiannon 
singing  to  you  all  the  while.  And  at  the  Island 
of  Gwales  you  will  dwell  for  fourscore  years,  and 
you  may  remain  there,  bearing  the  head  with  you 
uncorrupted,  until  you  open  the  door  that  looks 
towards  the  mainland ;  and  after  you  have  once 
opened  that  door  you  can  stay  no  longer,  but 


36  Bran  the  Blessed 

must  set  forth    to    London   to    bury   the    head, 
leaving  it  there  to  look  toward  France." 

So  they  went  on  to  Harlech  and  there  stopped 
to  rest,  and  sat  down  to  eat  and  drink.  And 
there  came  three  birds,  which  began  singing  a 
certain  song,  and  all  the  songs  they  had  ever 
heard  were  unpleasant  compared  with  it;  and 
the  songs  seemed  to  them  to  be  at  a  great  dis 
tance  from  them,  over  the  sea,  yet  the  notes 
were  heard  as  distinctly  as  if  they  were  close  by; 
and  it  is  said  that  at  this  repast  they  continued 
seven  years.  At  the  close  of  this  time  they  went 
forth  to  an  island  in  the  sea  called  Gwales. 
There  they  found  a  fair  and  regal  spot  overlook 
ing  the  ocean  and  a  spacious  hall  built  for  them. 
They  went  into  it  and  found  two  of  its  doors 
open,  but  the  third  door,  looking  toward  Cornwall, 
was  closed.  "See  yonder,"  said  their  leader 
Manawydan ;  "  that  is  the  door  we  may  not 
open."  And  that  night  they  regaled  themselves 
and  were  joyful.  And  of  all  they  had  seen  of 
food  laid  before  them,  and  of  all  they  had  heard 
said,  they  remembered  nothing ;  neither  of  that, 
nor  of  any  sorrow  whatsoever.  There  they  re- 


Bran  the  Blessed  37 

mained  fourscore  years,  unconscious  of  having 
ever  spent  a  time  more  joyous  and  mirthful. 
And  they  were  not  more  weary  than  when  first 
they  came,  neither  did  they,  any  of  them,  know 
the  time  they  had  been  there.  It  was  not  more 
irksome  for  them  to  have  the  head  with  them, 
than  if  Bran  the  Blessed  had  been  with  them 
himself.  And  because  of  these  fourscore  years, 
it  was  called  "  The  Entertaining  of  the  Noble 
Head." 

One  day  said  Heilwyn  the  son  of  Gwyn, 
"Evil  betide  me,  if  I  do  not  open  the  door  to 
know  if  that  is  true  which  is  said  concerning  it." 
So  he  opened  the  door  and  looked  towards 
Cornwall.  And  when  they  had  looked  they 
were  as  conscious  of  all  the  evils  they  had  ever 
sustained,  and  of  all  the  friends  and  companions 
they  had  ever  lost,  and  of  all  the  misery  that  had 
befallen  them,  as  if  all  had  happened  in  that  very 
spot;  and  especially  of  the  fate  of  their  lord. 
And  because  of  their  perturbation  they  could  not 
rest,  but  journeyed  forth  with  the  head  towards 
London.  And  they  buried  the  head  in  the 
White  Mount. 


3  8  Bran  the  Blessed 

The  island  called  Gwales  is  supposed  to  be 
that  now  named  Gresholm,  eight  or  ten  miles  off 
the  coast  of  Pembrokeshire;  and  to  this  day  the 
Welsh  sailors  on  that  coast  talk  of  the  Green 
Meadows  of  Enchantment  lying  out  at  sea  west 
of  them,  and  of  men  who  had  either  landed  on 
them  or  seen  them  suddenly  vanishing.  Some 
of  the  people  of  IVTilford  used  to  declare  that 
they  could  sometimes  see  the  Green  Islands  of 
the  fairies  quite  distinctly ;  and  they  believed 
that  the  fairies  went  to  and  fro  between  their 
islands  and  the  shore  through  a  subterranean  gal 
lery  under  the  sea.  They  used,  indeed,  to  make 
purchases  in  the  markets  of  Milford  or  Lang- 
horne,  and  this  they  did  sometimes  without 
being  seen  and  always  without  speaking,  for 
they  seemed  to  know  the  prices  of  the  things 
they  wished  to  buy  and  always  laid  down  the 
exact  sum  of  money  needed.  And  indeed,  how 
could  the  seven  companions  of  the  Enchanted 
Head  have  spent  eighty  years  of  incessant  feast 
ing  on  an  island  of  the  sea,  without  sometimes 
purchasing  supplies  from  the  mainland  ? 


VI 

THE    CASTLE    OF   THE    ACTIVE   DOOR 

Perfect  is  my  chair  in  Caer  Sidi ; 
Plague  and  age  hurt  not  who's  in  it  — 
They  know,  Manawydan  and  Pryderi. 
Three  organs  round  a  fire  sing  before  it, 
And  about  its  points  are  ocean's  streams 
And  the  abundant  well  above  it  — 
Sweeter  than  white  wine  the  drink  in  it. 

PEREDUR,  the  knight,  rode  through  the 
wild  woods  of  the  Enchanted  Island  un 
til  he  arrived  on  clear  ground  outside  the 
forest.  Then  he  beheld  a  castle  on  level  ground 
in  the  middle  of  a  meadow;  and  round  the  castle 
flowed  a  stream,  and  inside  the  castle  there  were 
large  and  spacious  halls  with  great  windows. 
Drawing  nearer  the  castle,  he  saw  it  to  be  turn 
ing  more  rapidly  than  any  wind  blows.  On  the 
ramparts  he  saw  archers  shooting  so  vigor 
ously  that  no  armor  would  protect  against  them  ; 
there  were  also  men  blowing  horns  so  loud  that 

39 


40  The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door 

the  earth  appeared  to  tremble ;  and  at  the  gates 
were  lions,  in  iron  chains,  roaring  so  violently 
that  -one  might  fancy  that  the  castle  and  the 
woods  were  ready  to  be  uprooted.  Neither  the 
lions  nor  the  warriors  resisted  Peredur,  but  he 
found  a  woman  sitting  by  the  gate,  who  offered 
to  carry  him  on  her  back  to  the  hall.  This  was 
the  queen  Rhiannon,  who,  having  been  accused 
of  having  caused  the  death  of  her  child,  was  sen 
tenced  to  remain  seven  years  sitting  by  the  gate, 
to  tell  her  story  to  every  one,  and  to  offer  to  carry 
all  strangers  on  her  back  into  the  castle. 

But  so  soon  as  Peredur  had  entered  it,  the 
castle  vanished  away,  and  he  found  himself  stand 
ing  on  the  bare  ground.  The  queen  Rhiannon 
was  left  beside  him,  and  she  remained  on  the 
island  with  her  son  Pryderi  and  his  wife.  Queen 
Rhiannon  married  for  her  second  husband  a 
person  named  Manawydan.  One  day  they  as 
cended  a  mound  called  Arberth  which  was  well 
known  for  its  wonders,  and  as  they  sat  there  they 
heard  a  clap  of  thunder,  followed  by  mist  so 
thick  that  they  could  not  see  one  another. 
When  it  grew  light  again,  they  looked  around 


The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door  41 

them  and  found  that  all  dwellings  and  animals 
had  vanished ;  there  was  no  smoke  or  fire  any 
where  or  work  of  human  hands  ;  all  their  house 
hold  had  disappeared,  and  there  were  left  only 
Pryderi  and  Manawydan  with  their  wives. 
Wandering  from  place  to  place,  they  found  no 
human  beings  ;  but  they  lived  by  hunting,  fish 
ing,  and  gathering  wild  honey.  After  visiting 
foreign  lands,  they  returned  to  their  island  home. 
One  day  when  they  were  out  hunting,  a  wild 
boar  of  pure  white  color  sprang  from  a  bush,  and 
as  they  saw  him  they  retreated,  and  they  saw  also 
the  Turning  Castle.  The  boar,  watching  his  op 
portunity,  sprang  into  it,  and  the  dogs  followed, 
and  Pryderi  said,  "  I  will  go  into  this  castle  and 
get  tidings  of  the  dogs."  "Go  not,"  said  Man 
awydan;  "whoever  has  cast  a  spell  over  this  land 
and  deprived  us  of  our  dwelling  has  placed  this 
castle  here."  But  Pryderi  replied,  "  Of  a  truth  I 
cannot  give  up  my  dogs."  So  he  watched  for 
the  opportunity  and  went  in.  He  saw  neither 
boar  nor  dogs,  neither  man  nor  beast ;  but  on 
the  centre  of  the  castle  floor  he  saw  a  fountain 
with  marble  work  around  it,  and  on  the  margin 


42  The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door 

of  the  fountain  a  golden  bowl  upon  a  marble 
slab,  and  in  the  air  hung  chains,  of  which 
he  could  see  no  end.  He  was  much  delighted 
with  the  beauty  of  the  gold  and  the  rich  work 
manship  of  the  bowl  and  went  up  to  lay  hold  of 
it.  The  moment  he  touched  it,  his  fingers  clung 
to  the  bowl,  and  his  feet  to  the  slab ;  and  all  his 
joyousness  forsook  him  so  that  he  could  not 
utter  a  word.  And  thus  he  stood. 

Manawydan  waited  for  him  until  evening,  but 
hearing  nothing  either  of  him  or  of  the  dogs,  he 
returned  home.  When  he  entered,  Rhiannon, 
who  was  his  wife  and  who  was  also  Pryderi's 
mother,  looked  at  him.  "  Where/'  she  said, 
"  are  Pryderi  and  the  dogs  ?  "  "  This  is  what 
has  happened  to  me,"  he  said ;  and  he  told  her. 
"  An  evil  companion  hast  thou  been,"  she  said, 
"  and  a  good  companion  hast  thou  lost."  With 
these  words  she  went  out  and  proceeded  towards 
the  Castle  of  the  Active  Door.  Getting  in,  she 
saw  Pryderi  taking  hold  of  the  bowl,  and  she 
went  towards  him.  "  What  dost  thou  here  ? " 
she  said,  and  she  took  hold  of  the  bowl  for  her 
self;  and  then  her  hands  became  fast  to  it,  and 


The  hands  of  Pryderi  and  Rhiannon  were  held  fast  by  the  enchanted  bowl,  and 
their  feet  by  the  enchanted  slab  5  and  their  joyousness  forsook  them,  and  they 
could  not  utter  a  word."  —  p.  42 


The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door          43 

her  feet  to  the  slab,  and  she  could  not  speak  a 
word.  Then  came  thunder  and  a  fall  of  mist ; 
thereupon  the  Castle  of  the  Active  Door  van 
ished  and  never  was  seen  again.  Rhiannon  and 
Pryderi  also  vanished. 

When  Kigva,  the  wife  of  Pryderi,  saw  this, 
she  sorrowed  so  that  she  cared  not  if  she  lived  or 
died.  No  one  was  left  on  the  island  but  Man- 
awydan  and  herself.  They  wandered  away  to 
other  lands  and  sought  to  earn  their  living ; 
then  they  came  back  to  their  island,  bringing 
with  them  one  bag  of  wheat  which  they  planted. 
It  throve  and  grew,  and  when  the  time  of  har 
vest  came  it  was  most  promising,  so  that  Man- 
awydan  resolved  to  reap  it  on  the  morrow.  At 
break  of  day  he  came  back  to  begin ;  but  found 
nothing  left  but  straw.  Every  stalk  had  been 
cut  close  to  the  ground  and  carried  away.  Go 
ing  to  another  field,  he  found  it  ripe,  but  on  com 
ing  in  the  morning  he  found  but  the  straw. 
"  Some  one  has  contrived  my  ruin/'  he  said ;  "  I 
will  watch  the  third  field  to  see  what  happens. 
He  who  stole  the  first  will  come  to  steal  this/' 

He  remained  through  the  evening  to  watch  the 


44  The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door 

grain,  and  at  midnight  he  heard  loud  thunder. 
He  looked  and  saw  coming  a  host  of  mice 
such  as  no  man  could  number;  each  mouse 
took  a  stalk  of  the  wheat  and  climbed  it,  so 
that  it  bent  to  the  ground ;  then  each  mouse 
cut  off  the  ear  and  ran  away  with  it.  They  all 
did  this,  leaving  the  stalk  bare,  and  there  was 
not  a  single  straw  for  which  there  was  not  a 
mouse.  He  struck  among  them,  but  could  no 
more  fix  his  sight  on  any  of  them,  the  legend 
says,  than  on  flies  and  birds  in  the  air,  except 
one  which  seemed  heavier  than  the  rest,  and 
moved  slowly.  This  one  he  pursued  and 
caught,  put  it  in  his  glove  and  tied  it  with  a 
string.  Taking  it  home,  he  showed  it  to  Kigva, 
and  told  her  that  he  was  going  to  hang  the 
mouse  next  day.  She  advised  against  it,  but 
he  persisted,  and  on  the  next  morning  took 
the  animal  to  the  top  of  the  Mound  of  Ar- 
berth,  where  he  placed  two  wooden  forks  in 
the  ground,  and  set  up  a  small  gallows. 

While  doing  this,  he  saw  a  clerk  coming  to 
him  in  old,  threadbare  clothes.  It  was  now 
seven  years  since  he  had  seen  a  human  being 


The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door          45 

there,  except  the  friends  he  had  lost  and  Kigva 
who  survived  them.  The  clerk  bade  him  good 
day  and  said  he  was  going  back  to  his  country 
from  England,  where  he  had  been  singing. 
Then  the  clerk  asked  Manawydan  what  he  was 
doing.  "  Hanging  a  thief,"  said  he ;  and  when 
the  clerk  saw  that  it  was  a  mouse,  he  offered 
a  pound  to  release  it,  but  Manawydan  refused. 
Then  a  priest  came  riding  up  and  offered  him 
three  pounds  to  release  the  mouse;  but  this 
offer  was  declined.  Then  he  made  a  noose 
round  the  mouse's  neck,  and  while  he  did  this, 
a  bishop's  whole  retinue  came  riding  towards 
him.  The  bishop  seemed,  like  everybody  else, 
to  be  very  desirous  of  rescuing  the  mouse ;  he 
offered  first  seven  pounds,  and  then  twenty- 
four,  and  then  added  all  his  horses  and  equi 
pages  ;  but  Manawydan  still  refused.  The 
bishop  finally  asked  him  to  name  any  price  he 
pleased.  "  The  liberation  of  Rhiannon  and 
Pryderi,"  he  said.  "  Thou  shalt  have  it,"  said 
the  bishop.  "And  the  removal  of  the  enchant 
ment,"  said  Manawydan.  "  That  also,"  said 
the  bishop,  "  if  you  will  only  restore  the 


46  The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door 

mouse."  "Why?"  said  the  other.  "Because," 
said  the  bishop,  "  she  is  my  wife."  "  Why 
did  she  come  to  me  ? "  asked  Manawydan. 
"To  steal,"  was  the  reply.  "When  it  was 
known  that  you  were  inhabiting  the  island, 
my  household  came  to  me,  begging  me  to 
transform  them  into  mice.  The  first  and 
second  nights  they  came  alone,  but  the  third 
night  my  wife  and  the  ladies  of  the  court 
wished  also  to  accompany  them,  and  I  trans 
formed  them  also ;  and  now  you  have  prom 
ised  to  let  her  go."  "Not  so,"  said  the  other, 
"  except  with  a  promise  that  there  shall  be  no 
more  such  enchantment  practised,  and  no 
vengeance  on  Pryderi  and  Rhiannon,  or  on 
me."  This  being  promised,  the  bishop  said, 
"  Now  wilt  thou  release  my  wife  ?  "  "  No,  by 
my  faith,"  said  Manawydan,  "not  till  I  see 
Pryderi  and  Rhiannon  free  before  my  eyes." 
"  Here  they  are  coming,"  said  the  bishop ;  and 
when  they  had  been  embraced  by  Manawydan, 
he  let  go  the  mouse ;  the  bishop  touched  it 
with  a  wand,  and  it  became  the  most  beautiful 
young  woman  that  ever  was  seen.  "  Now  look 


The  Castle  of  the  Active  Door  47 

round  upon  the  country,"  said  the  bishop,  £C  and 
see  the  dwellings  and  the  crops  returned,"  and 
the  enchantment  was  removed. 

"The  Land  of  Illusion  and  the  Realm  of 
Glamour "  is  the  name  given  by  the  old 
romancers  to  the  south-west  part  of  Wales,  and 
to  all  the  islands  off  the  coast.  Indeed,  it  was 
believed,  ever  since  the  days  of  the  Greek  writer, 
Plutarch,  that  some  peculiar  magic  belonged  -to 
these  islands ;  and  every  great  storm  that  hap 
pened  among  them  was  supposed  to  be  caused 
by  the  death  of  one  of  the  wondrous  enchanters 
who  dwelt  in  that  region.  When  it  was  over, 
the  islanders  said,  "  Some  one  of  the  mighty 
has  passed  away." 


VII 

MERLIN   THE   ENCHANTER 

IN  one  of  the  old  books  called  Welsh 
Triads,  in  which  all  things  are  classed  by 
threes,  there  is  a  description  of  three 
men  called  "The  Three  Generous  Heroes  of 
the  Isle  of  Britain."  One  of  these  —  named 
Nud  or  Nodens,  and  later  called  Merlin  —  was 
first  brought  from  the  sea,  it  is  stated,  with  a 
herd  of  cattle  consisting  of  21,000  milch  cows, 
which  are  supposed  to  mean  those  waves  of 
the  sea  that  the  poets  often  describe  as  White 
Horses.  He  grew  up  to  be  a  king  and  war 
rior,  a  magician  and  prophet,  and  on  the  whole 
the  most  important  figure  in  the  Celtic  tradi 
tions.  He  came  from  the  sea  and  at  last  re 
turned  to  it,  but  meanwhile  he  did  great  works 
on  land,  one  of  which  is  said  to  have  been  the 
building  of  Stonehenge. 

This  is   the  way,  as  the   old  legends  tell,  in 

which   the   vast  stones    of  Stonehenge  came  to 

48 


Merlin  the  Enchanter  49 

be  placed  on  Salisbury  Plain.  It  is  a  thing 
which  has  always  been  a  puzzle  to  every  one, 
inasmuch  as  their  size  and  weight  are  enor 
mous,  and  there  is  no  stone  of  the  same  de 
scription  to  be  found  within  hundreds  of  miles 
of  Salisbury  Plain,  where  they  now  stand. 

The  legend  is  that  Pendragon,  king  of  Eng 
land,  was  led  to  fight  a  great  battle  by  seeing  a 
dragon  in  the  air.  The  battle  was  won,  but  Pen- 
dragon  was  killed  and  was  buried  on  Salisbury 
Plain,  where  the  fight  had  taken  place.  When 
his  brother  Uther  took  his  place,  Merlin  the 
enchanter  advised  him  to  paint  a  dragon  on  a 
flag  and  bear  it  always  before  him  to  bring 
good  fortune,  and  this  he  always  did.  Then 
Merlin  said  to  him,  "Wilt  thou  do  nothing 
more  on  the  Plain  of  Salisbury,  to  honor  thy 
brother?"  The  King  said,  "  What  shall  be 
done  ? "  Then  Merlin  said,  "  I  will  cause  a 
thing  to  be  done  that  will  endure  to  the 
world's  end."  Then  he  bade  Utherpendragon, 
as  he  called  the  new  king,  to  send  many  ships 
and  men  to  Ireland,  and  he  showed  him  stones 
such  as  seemed  far  too  large  and  heavy  to 


50  Merlin  the  Enchanter 

bring,  but  he  placed  them  by  his  magic  art 
upon  the  boats  and  bore  them  to  England ; 
and  he  devised  means  to  transport  them  and 
to  set  them  on  end,  "  for  they  shall  seem  fairer 
so  than  if  they  were  lying."  And  there  they 
are  to  this  day. 

This  was  the  way  in  which  Merlin  would 
sometimes  obtain  the  favor  and  admiration  of 
young  ladies.  There  was  a  maiden  of  twelve 
named  Nimiane  or  Vivian,  the  daughter  of 
King  Dionas,  and  Merlin  changed  himself  into 
the  appearance  of  "a  fair  young  squire,"  that 
he  might  talk  with  her  beside  a  fountain,  de 
scribed  in  the  legends  as  "  a  well,  whereof  the 
springs  were  fair  and  the  water  clear  and  the 
gravel  so  fair  that  it  seemed  of  fine  silver."  By 
degrees  he  made  acquaintance  with  the  child, 
who  told  him  who  she  was,  adding,  "  And  what 
are  you,  fair,  sweet  friend  ? "  "  Damsel,"  said 
Merlin,  "  I  am  a  travelling  squire,  seeking  for 
my  master,  who  has  taught  me  wonderful  things." 
"And  what  master  is  that?"  she  asked.  "It 
is  one,"  he  said,  "  who  has  taught  me  so 
much  that  I  could  here  erect  for  you  a  castle, 


Merlin,  changed  into  the  appearance  of  a  fair  young  squire,  by  degrees  made 
acquaintance  with  Vivian,  who  told  him  who  she  was."  —  p.  50 


Merlin  the  Enchanter  51 

and  I  could  make  many  people  outside  to  attack 
it  and  inside  to  defend  it ;  nay,  I  could  go 
upon  this  water  and  not  wet  my  feet,  and 
I  could  make  a  river  where  water  had  never 
been." 

"  These  are  strange  feats,"  said  the  maiden, 
"  and  I  wish  that  I  could  thus  disport  myself." 
"  I  can  do  yet  greater  things,"  said  Merlin, 
"  and  no  one  can  devise  anything  which  I  cannot 
do,  and  I  can  also  make  it  to  endure  forever." 
"  Indeed,"  said  the  girl,  "  I  would  always  love 
you  if  you  could  show  me  some  such  wonders." 
"  For  your  love,"  he  answered,  "  I  will  show  you 
some  of  these  wondrous  plays,  and  I  will  ask  no 
more  of  you."  Then  Merlin  turned  and  de 
scribed  a  circle  with  a  wand  and  then  came  and 
sat  by  her  again  at  the  fountain.  At  noon  she 
saw  coming  out  of  the  forest  many  ladies  and 
knights  and  squires,  holding  each  other  by  the 
hand  and  singing  in  the  greatest  joy ;  then  came 
men  with  timbrels  and  tabours  and  dancing,  so 
that  one  could  not  tell  one-fourth  part  of  the 
sports  that  went  on.  Then  Merlin  caused  an 
orchard  to  grow,  with  all  manner  of  fruit  and 


52  Merlin  the  Enchanter 

flowers ;  and  the  maiden  cared  for  nothing  but 
to  listen  to  their  singing,  "  Truly  love  begins  in 
joy,  but  ends  in  grief."  The  festival  continued 
from  mid-day  to  even-song ;  and  King  Dionas 
and  his  courtiers  came  out  to  see  it,  and  mar 
velled  whence  these  strange  people  came.  Then 
when  the  carols  were  ended,  the  ladies  and 
maidens  sat  down  on  the  green  grass  and  fresh 
flowers,  and  the  squires  set  up  a  game  of  tilting 
called  quintain  upon  the  meadows  and  played 
till  even-song ;  and  then  Merlin  came  to  the 
damsel  and  asked  if  he  had  done  what  he 
promised  for  her.  "  Fair,  sweet  friend,"  said 
she,  "  you  have  done  so  much  that  I  am  all 
yours."  "  Let  me  teach  you,"  he  answered, 
"  and  I  will  show  you  many  wonders  that  no 
woman  ever  learned  so  many." 

Merlin  and  this  young  damsel  always  re 
mained  friends,  and  he  taught  her  many  wonder 
ful  arts,  one  of  which  was  (this  we  must  regret) 
a  spell  by  which  she  might  put  her  parents  to 
sleep  whenever  he  visited  her ;  while  another 
lesson  was  (this  being  more  unexceptionable)  in 
the  use  of  three  words,  by  saying  which  she 


Merlin  the  Enchanter  53 

might  at  any  time  keep  at  a  distance  any 
men  who  tried  to  molest  her.  He  stayed  eight 
days  near  her,  and  in  those  days  taught  her  many 
of  the  most  "  wonderful  things  that  any  mortal 
heart  could  think  of,  things  past  and  things 
that  were  done  and  said,  and  a  part  of  what  was 
to  come ;  and  she  put  them  in  writing,  and  then 
Merlin  departed  from  her  and  came  to  Benoyk, 
where  the  king,  Arthur,  rested,  so  that  glad 
were  they  when  they  saw  Merlin." 

The  relations  between  Merlin  and  Arthur 
are  unlike  those  ever  held  towards  a  king  even 
by  an  enchanter  in  any  legend.  Even  in 
Homer  there  is  no  one  described,  except  the 
gods,  as  having  such  authority  over  a  ruler. 
Merlin  came  and  went  as  he  pleased  and  under 
any  form  he  might  please.  He  foretold  the 
result  of  a  battle,  ordered  up  troops,  brought 
aid  from  a  distance.  He  rebuked  the  bravest 
knights  for  cowardice ;  as  when  Ban,  Bors, 
and  Gawain  had  concealed  themselves  behind 
some  bushes  during  a  fight.  "  Is  this,"  he  said 
to  King  Arthur  and  Sir  Bors,  "  the  war  and  the 
help  that  you  do  to  your  friends  who  have  put 


54  Merlin  the  Enchanter 

themselves  in  adventure  of  death  in  many  a  need, 
and  ye  come  hither  to  hide  for  cowardice." 
Then  the  legend  says,  "  When  the  king  under 
stood  the  words  of  Merlin,  he  bowed  his  head 
for  shame,"  and  the  other  knights  acknowledged 
their  fault.  Then  Merlin  took  the  dragon 
banner  which  he  had  given  them  and  said  that 
he  would  bear  it  himself;  "  for  the  banner  of  a 
king,"  he  said,  "  should  not  be  hid  in  battle,  — 
but  borne  in  the  foremost  front."  Then  Merlin 
rode  forth  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  "  Now 
shall  be  shown  who  is  a  knight."  And  the 
knights,  seeing  Merlin,  exclaimed  that  he  was 
"  a  full  noble  man  " ;  and  "  without  fail,"  says 
the  legend,  "  he  was  full  of  marvellous  powers 
and  strength  of  body  and  great  and  long  stature ; 
but  brown  he  was  and  lean  and  rough  of  hair." 
Then  he  rode  in  among  the  enemy  on  a  great 
black  horse ;  and  the  golden  dragon  which  he 
had  made  and  had  attached  to  the  banner  gave 
out  from  its  throat  such  a  flaming  fire  that  the 
air  was  black  with  its  smoke;  and  all  King 
Arthur's  men  began  to  fight  again  more  stoutly, 
and  Arthur  himself  held  the  bridle  reins  in  his 


Merlin  the  Enchanter  55 

left   hand,   and   so    wielded    his    sword   with   his 
right  as  to  slay  two  hundred  men. 

There  was  no  end  to  Merlin's  disguises  — 
sometimes  as  an  old  man,  sometimes  as  a  boy 
or  a  dwarf,  then  as  a  woman,  then  as  an  igno 
rant  clown ;  —  but  the  legends  always  give  him 
some  object  to  accomplish,  some  work  to  do, 
and  there  was  always  a  certain  dignity  about 
him,  even  when  helping  King  Arthur,  as  he 
sometimes  did,  to  do  wrong  things.  His  fame 
extended  over  all  Britain,  and  also  through 
Brittany,  now  a  part  of  France,  where  the  same 
poetic  legends  extended.  This,  for  instance,  is 
a  very  old  Breton  song  about  him :  — 

MERLIN  THE  DIVINER 

Merlin  !   Merlin  !  where  art  thou  going 
So  early  in  the  day,  with  thy  black  dog  ? 
Oi !  oi !  oi !  oi !  oi !  oi !  oi  !  oi !  oi !  oi  !   oi ! 
Oi !  oi !  oi !  ioi !  oi ! 

I  have  come  here  to  search  the  way, 

To  find  the  red  egg; 

The  red  egg  of  the  marine  serpent, 

By  the  seaside,  in  the  hollow  of  the  stone. 


56  Merlin  the   Enchanter 

I  am  going  to  seek  in  the  valley 

The  green  water-cress,  and  the  golden  grass, 

And  the  top  branch  of  the  oak, 

In  the  wood  by  the  side  of  the  fountain. 

Merlin  !   Merlin  !   retrace  your  steps  ; 

Leave  the  branch  on  the  oak, 

And  the  green  water-cress  in  the  valley, 

As  well  as  the  golden  grass ; 

And  leave  the  red  egg  of  the  marine  serpent 

In  the  foam  by  the  hollow  of  the  stone. 

Merlin  !   Merlin  !   retrace  thy  steps; 

There  is  no  diviner  but  God. 

Merlin  was  supposed  to  know  the  past,  the 
present,  and  the  future,  and  to  be  able  to 
assume  the  form  of  any  animal,  and  even  that 
of  a  menhir,  or  huge  standing  stone.  Before 
history  began  he  ruled  in  Britain,  then  a  de 
lightful  island  of  flowery  meadows.  His  sub 
jects  were  "small  people"  (fairies),  and  their 
lives  were  a  continued  festival  of  singing,  play 
ing,  and  enjoyment.  The  sage  ruled  them  as 
a  father,  his  familiar  servant  being  a  tame  wolf. 
He  also  possessed  a  kingdom,  beneath  the 
waves,  where  everything  was  beautiful,  the 


Merlin  the  Enchanter  57 

inhabitants  being  charming  little  beings,  with 
waves  of  long,  fair  hair  falling  on  their  shoul 
ders  in  curls.  Fruits  and  milk  composed  the 
food  of  all,  meat  and  fish  being  held  in  abhor 
rence.  The  only  want  felt  was  of  the  full  light 
of  the  sun,  which,  coming  to  them  through  the 
water,  was  but  faint,  and  cast  no  shadow. 

Here  was  the  famous  workshop  where  Mer 
lin  forged  the  enchanted  sword  so  celebrated 
by  the  bards,  and  where  the  stones  were  found 
by  which  alone  the  sword  could  be  sharpened. 
Three  British  heroes  were  fated  to  wield  this 
blade  in  turn ;  viz.,  Lemenisk  the  leaper 
(Leimy  meaning  leap),  Utherpendragon,  and  his 
son  King  Arthur.  By  orders  of  this  last  hero, 
when  mortally  wounded,  it  was  flung  into  the 
sea,  where  it  will  remain  till  he  returns  to 
restore  the  rule  of  his  country  to  the  faithful 
British  race. 

The  bard  once  amused  and  puzzled  the  court 
by  entering  the  hall  as  a  blind  boy  led  by  a 
greyhound,  playing  on  his  harp,  and  demand 
ing  as  recompense  to  be  allowed  to  carry  the 
king's  banner  in  an  approaching  battle.  Being 


58  Merlin  the  Enchanter 

refused  on  account  of  his  blindness  he  vanished, 
and  the  king  of  Brittany  mentioned  his  suspi 
cions  that  this  was  one  of  Merlin's  elfin  tricks. 
Arthur  was  disturbed,  for  he  had  promised  to 
give  the  child  anything  except  his  honor,  his 
kingdom,  his  wife,  and  his  sword.  However, 
while  he  continued  to  fret,  there  entered  the  hall 
a  poor  child  about  eight  years  old,  with  shaved 
head,  features  of  livid  tint,  eyes  of  light  gray, 
barefooted,  barelegged,  and  a  whip  knotted  over 
his  shoulders  in  the  manner  affected  by  horse 
boys.  Speaking  and  looking  like  an  idiot,  he 
asked  the  king's  permission  to  bear  the  royal  en 
sign  in  the  approaching  battle  with  the  giant 
Rion.  The  courtiers  laughed,  but  Arthur,  sus 
pecting  a  new  joke  on  Merlin's  part,  granted  the 
demand,  and  then  Merlin  stood  in  his  own 
proper  person  before  the  company. 

He  also  seems  to  have  taught  people  many 
things  in  real  science,  especially  the  women,  who 
were  in  those  days  more  studious  than  the  men, 
or  at  least  had  less  leisure.  For  instance,  the 
legend  says  of  Morgan  le  fay  (or  la  fee),  King 
Arthur's  sister,  "  she  was  a  noble  clergesse 


Merlin  the  Enchanter  59 

(meaning  that  she  could  read  and  write,  like  the 
clergy),  and  of  astronomy  could  she  enough,  for 
Merlin  had  her  taught,  and  she  learned  much  of 
egromancy  (magic  or  necromancy) ;  and  the  best 
work-woman  she  was  with  her  hands  that  any 
man  knew  in  any  land,  and  she  had  the  fairest 
head  and  the  fairest  hands  under  heaven,  and 
shoulders  well-shapen ;  and  she  had  fair  elo 
quence  and  full  debonair  she  was,  as  long  as  she 
was  in  her  right  wit ;  and  when  she  was  wroth 
with  any  man,  she  was  evil  to  meet."  This  lady 
was  one  of  Merlin's  pupils,  but  the  one  whom 
he  loved  most  and  instructed  the  most  was 
Nimiane  or  Vivian,  already  mentioned,  who  seems 
to  have  been  to  him  rather  a  beloved  younger 
sister  than  anything  else,  and  he  taught  her  so 
much  that  "  at  last  he  might  hold  himself  a  fool," 
the  legend  says,  "  and  ever  she  inquired  of  his 
cunning  and  his  mysteries,  each  thing  by  itself, 
and  he  let  her  know  all,  and  she  wrote  all  that  he 
said,  as  she  was  well  learned  in  clergie  (reading 
and  writing),  and  learned  lightly  all  that  Merlin 
taught  her  ;  and  when  they  parted,  each  of  them 
commended  the  other  to  God  full  tenderly." 


60  Merlin  the  Enchanter 

The  form  of  the  enchanter  Merlin  disappeared 
from  view,  at  last  —  for  the  legends  do  not 
admit  that  his  life  ever  ended  —  across  the  sea 
whence  he  came. 

The  poet  Tennyson,  to  be  sure,  describes 
Nimiane  or  Vivian  —  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  — 
as  a  wicked  enchantress  who  persuaded  Merlin 
to  betray  his  secrets  to  her,  and  then  shut  him 
up  in  an  oak  tree  forever.  But  other  legends 
seem  to  show  that  Tennyson  does  great  injustice 
to  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  that  she  really  loved 
Merlin  even  in  his  age,  and  therefore  persuaded 
him  to  show  her  how  to  make  a  tower  without 
walls,  —  that  they  might  dwell  there  together  in 
peace,  and  address  each  other  only  as  Brother  and 
Sister.  When  he  had  told  her,  he  fell  asleep 
with  his  head  in  her  lap,  and  she  wove  a  spell 
nine  times  around  his  head,  and  the  tower  became 
the  strongest  in  the  world.  Some  of  the  many 
legends  place  this  tower  in  the  forest  of  Broce- 
liande ;  while  others  transport  it  afar  to  a  magic 
island,  where  Merlin  dwells  with  his  nine  bards, 
and  where  Vivian  alone  can  come  or  go 
through  the  magic  walls.  Some  legends  describe 


Merlin  the  Enchanter  61 

it  as  an  enclosure  "  neither  of  iron  nor  steel  nor 
timber  nor  of  stone,  but  of  the  air,  without  any 
other  thing  but  enchantment,  so  strong  that  it 
may  never  be  undone  while  the  world  endureth." 
Here  dwells  Merlin,  it  is  said,  with  nine  favorite 
bards  who  took  with  them  the  thirteen  treasures 
of  England.  These  treasures  are  said  to  have 
been :  — 

1 .  A  sword  ;  if  any  man  drew  it  except  the 
owner,  it  burst  into  a  flame  from  the  cross  to  the 
point.    All  who  asked  it  received  it ;   but  because 
of  this  peculiarity  all  shunned  it. 

2.  A  basket ;  if  food  for  one   man  were  put 
into    it,   when    opened   it    would    be    found    to 
contain  food  for  one  hundred. 

3.  A  horn ;   what   liquor  soever  was  desired 
was  found  therein. 

4.  A   chariot ;   whoever   sat   in    it   would    be 
immediately  wheresoever  he  wished. 

5.  A  halter,  which  was  in  a  staple  below  the 
feet  of  a  bed ;   and  whatever  horse  one  wished 
for  in  it,  he  would  find  it  there. 

6.  A    knife,    which    would    serve    four-and- 
twenty  men  at  meat  all  at  once. 


62  Merlin  the  Enchanter 

7.  A  caldron  ;   if  meat  were  put   into  it  to 
boil   for   a    coward,  it   would    never   be   boiled ; 
but  if  meat  were  put  in  it  for  a  brave  man,  it 
would  be  boiled  forthwith. 

8.  A   whetstone;    if  the  sword  of  a   brave 
man  were  sharpened  thereon,  and  any  one  were 
wounded   therewith,  he  would   be  sure   to   die ; 
but  if  it  were  that  of  a  coward  that  was  sharp 
ened  on  it,  he  would  be  none  the  worse. 

9.  A  garment ;  if  a  man  of  gentle  birth  put 
it  on,   it   suited   him  well ;    but   if   a    churl,    it 
would  not  fit  him. 

10,  ii.  A  pan  and  a  platter;  whatever  food 
was  required  was  found  therein. 

12.  A  chessboard;  when  the  men  were  placed 
upon  it,  they  would  play  of  themselves.     The 
chessboard  was  of  gold,  and  the  men  of  silver. 

13.  The   mantle  of  Arthur;    whosoever  was 
beneath  it  could  see  everything,  while  no    one 
could  see  him. 

It  is  towards  this  tower,  some  legends  say, 
that  Merlin  was  last  seen  by  some  Irish  monks, 
sailing  away  westward,  with  a  maiden,  in  a  boat 
of  crystal,  beneath  a  sunset  sky. 


VIII 

SIR   LANCELOT   OF   THE   LAKE 

SIR  LANCELOT,  the  famous  knight,  was 
the  son  of  a  king  and  queen  against 
whom  their  subjects  rebelled ;  the  king 
was  killed,  the  queen  taken  captive,  when  a  fairy 
rose  in  a  cloud  of  mist  and  carried  away  the 
infant  Lancelot  from  where  he  had  been  left 
beneath  a  tree.  The  queen,  after  weeping  on 
the  body  of  her  husband,  looked  round  and 
saw  a  lady  standing  by  the  water-side,  holding 
the  queen's  child  in  her  arms.  "  Fair,  sweet 
friend,"  said  the  queen,  "give  me  back  my 
child."  The  fairy  made  no  reply,  but  dived 
into  the  water;  and  the  queen  was  taken  to 
an  abbey,  where  she  was  known  as  the  Queen 
of  Great  Griefs.  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  took 
the  child  to  her  own  home,  which  was  an  island 
in  the  middle  of  the  sea  and  surrounded  by 
impassable  walls.  From  this  the  lady  had  her 

63 


64  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake 

name  of  Dame  du  Lac,  or  the  Lady  of  the 
Lake  (or  Sea),  and  her  foster  son  was  called 
Lancelot  du  Lac,  while  the  realm  was  called 
Meidelant,  or  the  Land  of  Maidens. 

Lancelot  dwelt  thenceforward  in  the  castle, 
on  the  island.  When  he  was  eight  years  old 
he  received  a  tutor  who  was  to  instruct  him  in 
all  knightly  knowledge ;  he  learned  to  use  bow 
and  spear  and  to  ride  on  horseback,  and  some 
cousins  of  his  were  also  brought  thither  by  the 
Lady  of  the  Lake  to  be  his  comrades.  When 
he  was  eighteen  he  wished  to  go  to  King 
Arthur's  court  that  he  might  be  a  knight. 

On  the  eve  of  St.  John,  as  King  Arthur  re 
turned  from  the  chase,  and  by  the  high  road 
approached  Camelot,  he  met  a  fair  company. 
In  the  van  went  two  youths,  leading  two  white 
mules,  one  freighted  with  a  silken  pavilion,  the 
other  with  robes  proper  for  a  newly  made  knight ; 
the  mules  bore  two  chests,  holding  the  hauberk 
and  the  iron  boots.  Next  came  two  squires, 
clad  in  white  robes  and  mounted  on  white 
horses,  carrying  a  silver  shield  and  a  shining 
helmet ;  after  these,  two  others,  with  a  sword 


Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake  65 

in  a  white  sheath  and  a  white  charger.  Behind 
followed  squires  and  servants  in  white  coats, 
three  damsels  dressed  in  white,  the  two  sons 
of  King  Bors;  and,  last  of  all,  the  fairy  with 
the  youth  she  loved.  Her  robe  was  of  white 
samite  lined  with  ermine ;  her  white  palfrey 
had  a  silver  bit,  while  her  breastplate,  stirrups, 
and  saddle  were  of  ivory,  carved  with  figures 
of  ladies  and  knights,  and  her  white  housings 
trailed  on  the  ground. 

When  she  perceived  the  king,  she  responded 
to  his  salutation,  and  said,  after  she  had  low 
ered  her  wimple  and  displayed  her  face :  "  Sir, 
may  God  bless  the  best  of  kings  !  I  come  to 
implore  a  boon,  which  it  shall  cost  you  noth 
ing  to  grant."  "  Damsel,  even  it  should  cost 
me  dear,  you  should  not  be  refused ;  what  is  it 
you  would  have  me  do  ? "  "  Sir,  dub  this 
varlet  a  knight,  and  array  him  in  the  arms 
he  bringeth,  whenever  he  desireth."  "  Your 
mercy,  damsel !  to  bring  me  such  a  youth ! 
Assuredly,  I  will  dub  him  whenever  he  will ; 
but  it  shameth  me  to  abandon  my  custom, 
for  'tis  my  wont  to  furnish  with  garments  and 


66  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake 

arms  such  as  come  thither  to  receive  chivalry." 
The  lady  replied  that  she  desired  the  youth 
to  carry  the  arms  she  had  intended  him  to 
wear,  and  if  she  were  refused,  she  would  ad 
dress  herself  elsewhere.  Sir  Ewain  said  that  so 
fair  a  youth  ought  not  to  be  denied,  and  the 
king  yielded  to  her  entreaty.  She  returned 
thanks,  and  bade  the  varlet  retain  the  mules 
and  the  charger,  with  the  two  squires ;  and  after 
that,  she  prepared  to  return  as  she  had  come, 
in  spite  of  the  urgency  of  the  king,  who  had 
begged  her  to  remain  in  his  court.  "  At  least," 
he  cried,  "  tell  us  by  what  name  are  you 
known?"  "Sir,"  she  answered,  "I  am  called 
the  Lady  of  the  Lake." 

For  a  long  way,  Lancelot  escorted  the  fairy, 
who  said  to  him  as  she  took  leave :  "  King's 
son,  you  are  derived  from  lineage  the  most 
noble  on  earth  ;  see  to  it  that  your  worth  be 
as  great  as  your  beauty.  To-morrow  you  will 
ask  the  king  to  bestow  on  you  knighthood ; 
when  you  are  armed,  you  will  not  tarry  in  his 
house  a  single  night.  Abide  in  one  place  no 
longer  than  you  can  help,  and  refrain  from 


Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake  67 

declaring  your  name  until  others  proclaim  it. 
Be  prepared  to  accomplish  every  adventure, 
and  never  let  another  man  complete  a  task 
which  you  yourself  have  undertaken."  With 
that,  she  gave  him  a  ring  that  had  the  prop 
erty  of  dissolving  enchantment,  and  commended 
him  to  God. 

On  the  morrow,  Lancelot  arrayed  himself 
in  his  fairest  robes,  and  sued  for  knighthood, 
as  he  had  been  commanded  to  do.  Sir  Ewain 
attended  him  to  court,  where  they  dismounted 
in  front  of  the  palace ;  the  king  and  queen 
advanced  to  meet  them ;  each  took  Sir  Ewain 
by  a  hand,  and  seated  him  on  a  couch,  while 
the  varlet  stood  in  their  presence  on  the  rushes 
that  strewed  the  floor.  All  gazed  with  pleas 
ure,  and  the  queen  prayed  that  God  might 
make  him  noble,  for  he  possessed  as  much 
beauty  as  was  possible  for  man  to  have. 

After  this  he  had  many  perilous  adventures ; 
he  fought  with  giants  and  lions ;  he  entered  an 
enchanted  castle  and  escaped ;  he  went  to  a 
well  in  the  forest,  and,  striking  three  times  on 
a  cymbal  with  a  hammer  hung  there  for  the 


68  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake 

purpose,  called  forth  a  great  giant,  whom  he 
slew,  afterwards  marrying  his  daughter.  Then 
he  went  to  rescue  the  queen  of  the  realm, 
Gwenivere,  from  captivity.  In  order  to  reach 
the  fortress  where  she  was  prisoner,  he  had  to 
ride  in  a  cart  with  a  dwarf;  to  follow  a  wheel 
that  rolled  before  him  to  show  him  the  way, 
or  a  ball  that  took  the  place  of  the  wheel ;  he 
had  to  walk  on  his  hands  and  knees  across  a 
bridge  made  of  a  drawn  sword ;  he  suffered 
greatly.  At  last  he  rescued  the  queen,  and 
later  than  this  he  married  Elaine,  the  daughter 
of  King  Pelles,  and  her  father  gave  to  them 
the  castle  of  Blyaunt  in  the  Joyous  Island,  en 
closed  in  iron,  and  with  a  deep  water  all  around 
it.  There  Lancelot  challenged  all  knights  to 
come  and  contend  with  him,  and  he  jousted  with 
more  than  five  hundred,  overcoming  them  all, 
yet  killing  none,  and  at  last  he  returned  to 
Camelot,  the  place  of  King  Arthur's  court. 

One  day  he  was  called  from  the  court  to  an 
abbey,  where  three  nuns  brought  to  him  a 
beautiful  boy  of  fifteen,  asking  that  he  might 
be  made  a  knight.  This  was  Sir  Lancelot's 


Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake  69 

own  son,  Galahad,  whom  he  had  never  seen, 
and  did  not  yet  know.  That  evening  Sir 
Lancelot  remained  at  the  abbey  with  the  boy, 
that  he  might  keep  his  vigil  there,  and  on  the 
morrow's  dawn  he  was  made  a  knight.  Sir 
Lancelot  put  on  one  of  his  spurs,  and  Bors, 
Lancelot's  cousin,  the  other,  and  then  Sir 
Lancelot  said  to  the  boy,  "  Fair  son,  attend 
me  to  the  court  of  the  king ;  "  but  the  abbess 
said,  "  Sir,  not  now,  but  we  will  send  him 
when  it  shall  be  time." 

On  Whitsunday,  at  the  time  called  "un- 
derne,"  which  was  nine  in  the  morning,  King 
Arthur  and  his  knights  sat  at  the  Round 
Table,  where  on  every  seat  there  was  written, 
in  letters  of  gold,  the  name  of  a  knight  with 
"  here  ought  to  sit  he,"  or  "  he  ought  to  sit 
here ; "  and  thus  went  the  inscriptions  until 
they  came  to  one  seat  (or  siege  in  French) 
called  the  "  Siege  Perilous,"  where  they  found 
newly  written  letters  of  gold,  saying  that  this 
seat  could  not  be  occupied  until  four  hundred 
and  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  Christ ;  and 
that  was  this  very  day.  Then  there  came  news 


yo  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake 

of  a  marvellous  stone  which  had  been  seen 
above  the  water,  with  a  sword  sticking  in  it 
bearing  the  letters,  "  Never  shall  man  take 
me  hence,  but  only  he  by  whose  side  I  ought 
to  hang,  and  he  shall  be  the  best  knight  of 
the  world."  Then  two  of  the  knights  tried 
to  draw  the  sword  and  failed  to  draw  it,  and 
Sir  Lancelot,  who  was  thought  the  best  knight 
in  all  the  world,  refused  to  attempt  it.  Then 
they  went  back  to  their  seats  around  the  table. 
Then  when  all  the  seats  but  the  "  Siege 
Perilous "  were  full,  the  hall  was  suddenly 
darkened ;  and  an  old  man  clad  in  white,  whom 
nobody  knew,  came  in,  with  a  young  knight  in 
red  armor,  wearing  an  empty  scabbard  at  his  side, 
who  said,  cc  Peace  be  with  you,  fair  knights." 
The  old  man  said,  "I  bring  you  here  a  young 
knight  that  is  of  kings*  lineage,"  and  the  king 
said,  "  Sir,  ye  are  right  heartily  welcome." 
Then  the  old  man  bade  the  young  knight  to 
remove  his  armor,  and  he  wore  a  red  garment, 
while  the  old  man  placed  on  his  shoulders  a 
mantle  of  fine  ermine,  and  said,  "  Sir,  follow 
after."  Then  the  old  man  led  him  to  the  "  Siege 


Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake  71 

Perilous,"  next  to  Sir  Lancelot,  and  lifted  the 
cloth  and  read,  "  Here  sits  Sir  Galahad,"  and 
the  youth  sat  down.  Upon  this,  all  the  knights 
of  the  Round  Table  marvelled  greatly  at  Sir 
Galahad,  that  he  dared  to  sit  in  that  seat,  and 
he  so  tender  of  age.  Then  King  Arthur  took 
him  by  the  hand  and  led  him  down  to  the 
river  to  see  the  adventure  of  the  stone.  "  Sir," 
said  the  king  to  Sir  Galahad,  "  here  is  a  great 
marvel,  where  right  good  knights  have  tried 
and  failed."  "  Sir,"  said  Sir  Galahad,  "  that  is 
no  marvel,  for  the  adventure  was  not  theirs, 
but  mine  ;  I  have  brought  no  sword  with  me, 
for  here  by  my  side  hangs  the  scabbard,"  and 
he  laid  his  hand  on  the  sword  and  lightly  drew 
it  from  the  stone. 

It  was  not  until  long  after,  and  when  they  both 
had  had  many  adventures,  that  Sir  Lancelot  dis 
covered  Galahad  to  be  his  son.  Sir  Lancelot 
once  came  to  the  sea-strand  and  found  a  ship 
without  sails  or  oars,  and  sailed  away  upon  it. 
Once,  when  he  touched  at  an  island,  a  young 
knight  came  on  board  to  whom  Lancelot  said, 
"  Sir,  you  are  welcome,"  and  when  the  young 


72  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake 

knight  asked  his  name,  told  him,  "  My  name  is 
Sir  Lancelot  du  Lac."  "Sir,"  he  said,  "then 
you  are  welcome,  for  you  are  my  father."  "Ah," 
said  Lancelot,  "  are  you  Sir  Galahad  ? "  Then 
the  young  knight  kneeled  down  and  asked  his 
blessing,  and  they  embraced  each  other,  and  there 
was  great  joy  between  them,  and  they  told  each 
other  all  their  deeds.  So  dwelt  Sir  Lancelot 
and  Sir  Galahad  together  within  that  ship  for 
half  a  year,  and  often  they  arrived  at  islands  far 
from  men  where  there  were  but  wild  beasts, 
and  they  found  many  adventures  strange  and 
perilous  which  they  brought  to  an  end. 

When  Sir  Lancelot  at  last  died,  his  body  was 
taken  to  Joyous-Gard,  his  home,  and  there  it 
lay  in  state  in  the  choir,  with  a  hundred  torches 
blazing  above  it ;  and  while  it  was  there,  came 
his  brother  Sir  Ector  de  Maris,  who  had  long 
been  seeking  Lancelot.  When  he  heard  such 
noise  and  saw  such  lights  in  the  choir,  he  alighted 
and  came  in;  and  Sir  Bors  went  towards  him  and 
told  him  that  his  brother  Lancelot  was  lying 
dead.  Then  Sir  Ector  threw  his  shield  and 
sword  and  helm  from  him,  and  when  he  looked 


Sir  Lancelot  of  the   Lake  73 

on  Sir  Lancelot's  face  he  fell  down  in  a  swoon, 
and  when  he  rose  he  spoke  thus :  "  Ah,  Sir 
Lancelot,"  said  he,  "  thou  wert  dead  of  all 
Christen  knights  !  And  now  I  dare  say,  that, 
Sir  Lancelot,  there  thou  liest,  thou  wert  never 
matched  of  none  earthly  knight's  hands;  and 
thou  wert  the  curtiest  knight  that  ever  beare 
shield ;  and  thou  wert  the  truest  friend  to  thy 
lover  that  ever  bestrood  horse,  and  thou  wert 
the  truest  lover  of  a  sinful  man  that  ever  loved 
woman ;  and  thou  wert  the  kindest  man  that 
ever  strooke  with  sword  ;  and  thou  wert  the 
goodliest  person  that  ever  came  among  presse  of 
knights  ;  and  thou  wert  the  meekest  man  and 
the  gentlest  that  ever  eate  in  hall  among  ladies  ; 
and  thou  wert  the  sternest  knight  to  thy  mortall 
foe  that  ever  put  speare  in  the  rest." 


IX 

THE    HALF-MAN 

KING  ARTHUR  in  his  youth  was  fond 
of  all  manly  exercises,  especially  of 
wrestling,  an  art  in  which  he  found  few 
equals.  The  old  men  who  had  been  the  cham 
pions  of  earlier  days,  and  who  still  sat,  in  summer 
evenings,  watching  the  youths  who  tried  their 
skill  before  them,  at  last  told  him  that  he  had  no 
rival  in  Cornwall,  and  that  his  only  remaining 
competitor  elsewhere  was  one  who  had  tired  out 
all  others. 

"  Where  is  he  ?  "  said  Arthur. 

"  He  dwells,"  an  old  man  said,  "  on  an  island 
whither  you  will  have  to  go  and  find  him.  He 
is  of  all  wrestlers  the  most  formidable.  You 
will  think  him  at  first  so  insignificant  as  to  be 
hardly  worth  a  contest ;  you  will  easily  throw 
him  at  the  first  trial  ;  but  after  a  while  you  will 
find  him  growing  stronger ;  he  seeks  out  all 

74 


The  Half-Man  75 

your  weak  points  as  by  magic;  he  never  gives 
up ;  you  may  throw  him  again  and  again,  but  he 
will  conquer  you  at  last." 

"  His  name  !  his  name  !  "  said  Arthur. 

"  His  name/'  they  answered,  <c  is  Hanner 
Dyn ;  his  home  is  everywhere,  but  on  his  own 
island  you  will  be  likely  to  find  him  sooner  or 
later.  Keep  clear  of  him,  or  he  will  get  the  best 
of  you  in  the  end,  and  make  you  his  slave  as 
he  makes  slaves  of  others  whom  he  has  con 
quered." 

Far  and  wide  over  the  ocean  the  young 
Arthur  sought;  he  touched  at  island  after 
island ;  he  saw  many  weak  men  who  did  not 
dare  to  wrestle  with  him,  and  many  strong  ones 
whom  he  could  always  throw,  until  at  last  when 
he  was  far  out  under  the  western  sky,  he  came 
one  day  to  an  island  which  he  had  never  before 
seen  and  which  seemed  uninhabited.  Presently 
there  came  out  from  beneath  an  arbor  of  flowers 
a  little  miniature  man,  graceful  and  quick-mov 
ing  as  an  elf.  Arthur,  eager  in  his  quest,  said 
to  him,  "  In  what  island  dwells  Hanner  Dyn  ?  " 
"In  this  island,"  was  the  answer.  "Where  is 


76  The  Half-Man 

he  ?  "  said  Arthur.  "  I  am  he,"  said  the  laugh 
ing  boy,  taking  hold  of  his  hand. 

"  What  did  they  mean  by  calling  you  a  wres 
tler  ? "  said  Arthur. 

"  Oh,"  said  the  child  coaxingly,  "  I  am  a  wres 
tler.  Try  me." 

The  king  took  him  and  tossed  him  in  the  air 
with  his  strong  arms,  till  the  boy  shouted  with 
delight.  He  then  took  Arthur  by  the  hand  and 
led  him  about  the  island  —  showed  him  his  house 
and  where  the  gardens  and  fields  were.  He 
showed  him  the  rows  of  men  toiling  in  the  mead 
ows  or  felling  trees.  "  They  all  work  for  me," 
he  said  carelessly.  The  king  thought  he  had 
never  seen  a  more  stalwart  set  of  laborers. 
Then  the  boy  led  him  to  the  house,  asked  him 
what  his  favorite  fruits  were,  or  his  favorite  bev 
erages,  and  seemed  to  have  all  at  hand.  He  was 
an  unaccountable  little  creature ;  in  size  and 
years  he  seemed  a  child ;  but  in  his  activity  and 
agility  he  seemed  almost  a  man.  When  the 
king  told  him  so,  he  smiled,  as  winningly  as  ever, 
and  said,  "That  is  what  they  call  me  —  Hanner 
Dyn,  The  Half-Man."  Laughing  merrily,  he 


The  Half-Man  77 

helped  Arthur  into  his  boat  and  bade  him  fare 
well,  urging  him  to  come  again.  The  King 
sailed  away,  looking  back  with  something  like 
affection  on  his  winsome  little  playmate. 

It  was  months  before  Arthur  came  that  way 
again.  Again  the  merry  child  met  him,  having 
grown  a  good  deal  since  their  earlier  meeting. 
"How  is  my  little  wrestler?1'  said  Arthur. 
"  Try  me,"  said  the  boy  ;  and  the  king  tossed 
him  again  in  his  arms,  finding  the  delicate  limbs 
firmer,  and  the  slender  body  heavier  than  before, 
though  easily  manageable.  The  island  was  as 
green  and  more  cultivated,  there  were  more  men 
working  in  the  fields,  and  Arthur  noticed  that 
their  look  was  not  cheerful,  but  rather  as  of 
those  who  had  been  discouraged  and  oppressed. 

It  was,  however,  a  charming  sail  to  the  island, 
and,  as  it  became  more  familiar,  the  king  often 
bade  his  steersman  guide  the  pinnace  that  way. 
He  was  often  startled  with  the  rapid  growth  and 
increased  strength  of  the  laughing  boy,  Hanner 
Dyn,  while  at  other  times  he  seemed  much  as 
before  and  appeared  to  have  made  but  little  prog 
ress.  The  youth  seemed  never  tired  of  wrest- 


78  The  Half-Man 

ling;  he  always  begged  the  king  for  a  trial  of 
skill,  and  the  king  rejoiced  to  see  how  readily 
the  young  wrestler  caught  at  the  tricks  of  the 
art ;  so  that  the  time  had  long  passed  when  even 
Arthur's  strength  could  toss  him  lightly  in  the 
air,  as  at  first.  Hanner  Dyn  was  growing  with 
incredible  rapidity  into  a  tall  young  fellow,  and 
instead  of  the  weakness  that  often  comes  with 
rapid  growth,  his  muscles  grew  ever  harder  and 
harder.  Still  merry  and  smiling,  he  began  to 
wrestle  in  earnest,  and  one  day,  in  a  moment  of 
carelessness,  Arthur  received  a  back  fall,  perhaps 
on  moist  ground,  and  measured  his  length.  Rising 
with  a  quick  motion,  he  laughed  at  the  angry 
faces  of  his  attendants  and  bade  the  boy  farewell. 
The  men  at  work  in  the  fields  glanced  up,  at 
tracted  by  the  sound  of  voices,  and  he  saw  them 
exchange  looks  with  one  another. 

Yet  he  felt  his  kingly  dignity  a  little  im 
paired,  and  hastened  ere  long  to  revisit  the 
island  and  teach  the  saucy  boy  another  lesson. 
Months  had  passed,  and  the  youth  had  ex 
panded  into  a  man  of  princely  promise,  but 
with  the  same  sunny  look.  His  shoulders 


The  Half-Man  79 

were  now  broad,  his  limbs  of  the  firmest 
mould,  his  eye  clear,  keen,  penetrating.  "  Of 
all  the  wrestlers  I  have  ever  yet  met,"  said  the 
king,  "  this  younker  promises  to  be  the  most 
formidable.  I  can  easily  throw  him  now,  but 
what  will  he  be  a  few  years  hence  ? "  The 
youth  greeted  him  joyously,  and  they  began 
their  usual  match.  The  sullen  serfs  in  the 
fields  stopped  to  watch  them,  and  an  aged 
Druid  priest,  whom  Arthur  had  brought  with 
him,  to  give  the  old  man  air  and  exercise  in 
the  boat,  opened  his  weak  eyes  and  closed 
them  again. 

As  they  began  to  wrestle,  the  king  felt,  by 
the  very  grasp  of  the  youth's  arms,  by  the 
firm  set  of  his  foot  upon  the  turf,  that  this  was 
to  be  unlike  any  previous  effort.  The  wrestlers 
stood  after  the  old  Cornish  fashion,  breast  to 
breast,  each  resting  his  chin  on  the  other's 
shoulder.  They  grasped  each  other 'round  the 
body,  each  setting  his  left  hand  above  the 
other's  right.  Each  tried  to  force  the  other 
to  touch  the  ground  with  both  shoulders  and 
one  hip,  or  with  both  hips  and  one  shoulder ; 


8o  The  Half-Man 

or  else  to  compel  the  other  to  relinquish  his 
hold  for  an  instant  —  either  of  these  successes 
giving  the  victory.  Often  as  Arthur  had  tried 
the  art,  he  never  had  been  so  matched  before. 
The  competitors  swayed  this  way  and  that, 
writhed,  struggled,  half  lost  their  footing  and 
regained  it,  yet  neither  yielded.  All  the  boat 
men  gathered  breathlessly  around,  King  Arthur's 
men  refusing  to  believe  their  eyes,  even  when 
they  knew  their  king  was  in  danger.  A 
stranger  group  was  that  of  the  sullen  farm- 
laborers,  who  left  their  ploughs  and  spades,  and, 
congregating  on  a  rising  ground,  watched  with 
out  any  expression  of  sympathy  the  contest 
that  was  going  on.  An  old  wrestler  from 
Cornwall,  whom  Arthur  had  brought  with  him, 
was  the  judge ;  and  according  to  the  habit  of 
the  time,  the  contest  was  for  the  best  two 
bouts  in  three.  By  the  utmost  skill  and 
strength.,  Arthur  compelled  Hanner  Dyn  to 
lose  his  hold  for  one  instant  in  the  first  trial, 
and  the  King  was  pronounced  the  victor. 

The  second  test  was   far  more   difficult;    the 
boy,  now  grown  to  a  man,  and  seeming  to  grow 


The  Half-Man  81 

older  and  stronger  before  their  very  eyes,  twice 
forced  Arthur  to  the  ground  either  with  hip  or 
shoulder,  but  never  with  both,  while  the  crowd 
closed  in  breathlessly  around ;  and  the  half- 
blind  old  Druid,  who  had  himself  been  a  wrest 
ler  in  his  youth,  and  who  had  been  brought 
ashore  to  witness  the  contest,  called  warningly 
aloud,  "Save  thyself,  O  king!"  At  this 
Arthur  roused  his  failing  strength  to  one  final 
effort,  and,  griping  his  rival  round  the  waist 
with  a  mighty  grasp,  raised  him  bodily  from 
the  ground  and  threw  him  backward  till  he 
fell  flat,  like  a  log,  on  both  shoulders  and  both 
hips;  while  Arthur  himself  fell  fainting  a 
moment  later.  Nor  did  he  recover  until  he 
found  himself  in  the  boat,  his  head  resting  on 
the  knees  of  the  aged  Druid,  who  said  to  him, 
"  Never  again,  O  king !  must  you  encounter 
the  danger  you  have  barely  escaped.  Had  you 
failed,  you  would  have  become  subject  to  your 
opponent,  whose  strength  has  been  maturing 
for  years  to  overpower  you.  Had  you  yielded, 
you  would,  although  a  king,  have  become  but 
as  are  those  dark-browed  men  who  till  his 


82  The  Half-Man 

fields  and  do  his  bidding.  For  know  you  not 
what  the  name  Hanner  Dyn  means  ?  It  means 
—  Habit;  and  the  force  of  habit,  at  first  weak, 
then  growing  constantly  stronger,  ends  in 
conquering  even  kings  !  " 


KING   ARTHUR   AT   AVALON 

IN  the  ruined  castle  at  Winchester,  Eng 
land,  built  by  William  the  Conqueror, 
there  is  a  hall  called  "The  Great  Hall," 
where  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  was  received  by 
his  nobles  when  rescued  from  captivity ;  where 
Henry  III.  was  born;  where  all  the  Edwards 
held  court ;  where  Henry  VIII.  entertained  the 
emperor  Charles  V. ;  where  Queen  Mary  was 
married  to  Philip  II.;  where  Parliament  met 
for  many  years.  It  is  now  a  public  hall  for 
the  county ;  and  at  one  end  of  it  the  visitor 
sees  against  the  wall  a  vast  wooden  tablet  on 
which  the  names  of  King  Arthur's  knights  of 
the  Round  Table  are  inscribed  in  a  circle.  No 
one  knows  its  date  or  origin,  though  it  is 
known  to  be  more  than  four  hundred  years 
old,  but  there  appear  upon  it  the  names  most 
familiar  to  those  who  have  read  the  legends  of 

83 


84  King  Arthur  at  Avalon 

King  Arthur,  whether  in  Tennyson's  poems 
or  elsewhere.  There  are  Lancelot  and  Bedi- 
vere,  Gawaine  and  Dagonet,  Modred  and 
Gareth,  and  the  rest.  Many  books  have  been 
written  of  their  deeds ;  but  a  time  came  when 
almost  all  those  knights  were  to  fall,  according 
to  the  legend,  in  one  great  battle.  Modred, 
the  king's  nephew,  had  been  left  in  charge  of 
the  kingdom  during  Arthur's  absence,  and  had 
betrayed  him  and  tried  to  dethrone  him,  mean 
ing  to  crown  himself  king.  Many  people 
joined  with  him,  saying  that  under  Arthur  they 
had  had  only  war  and  fighting,  but  under 
Modred  they  would  have  peace  and  bliss.  Yet 
nothing  was  farther  from  Modred's  purpose 
than  bliss  or  peace,  and  it  was  agreed  at  last 
that  a  great  battle  should  be  fought  for  the 
kingdom. 

On  the  night  of  Trinity  Sunday,  King 
Arthur  had  a  dream.  He  thought  he  sat  in  a 
chair,  upon  a  scaffold,  and  the  chair  was 
fastened  to  a  wheel.  He  was  dressed  in  the 
richest  cloth  of  gold  that  could  be  made,  but 
far  beneath  him  he  saw  a  pit,  full  of  black 


"  And  the  chair  was  fastened  to  a  wheel,  and  the  wheel  began  to  turn,  and  King 
Arthur  went  down,  down  among  the  floating  things,  and  they  wreathed  them 
selves  about  him  till  he  cried,  '  Help  !  help  !  '  " p.  85 


King  Arthur  at  Avalon  85 

water,  in  which  '  were  all  manner  of  serpents 
and  floating  beasts.  Then  the  wheel  began  to 
turn,  and  he  went  down,  down  among  the  float 
ing  things,  and  they  wreathed  themselves  about 
him  till  he  cried,  "Help!  help!" 

Then  his  knights  and  squires  and  yeomen 
aroused  him,  but  he  slumbered  again,  not  sleep 
ing  nor  thoroughly  waking.  Then  he  thought 
he  saw  his  nephew,  Sir  Gawaine,  with  a  num 
ber  of  fair  ladies,  and  when  King  Arthur  saw 
him,  he  said,  "  O  fair  nephew,  what  are  these 
ladies  who  come  with  you  ?  "  "  Sir,"  said  Sir 
Gawaine,  "  these  are  the  ladies  for  whose  pro 
tection  I  fought  while  I  was  a  living  man,  and 
God  has  given  them  grace  that  they  should 
bring  me  thither  to  you,  to  warn  you  of  your 
death.  If  you  fight  with  Sir  Modred  to-mor 
row,  you  must  be  slain,  and  most  of  your 
people  on  both  sides."  So  Sir  Gawaine  and 
all  the  ladies  vanished,  and  then  the  king 
called  upon  his  knights  and  squires  and  yeo 
men,  and  summoned  his  lords  and  bishops. 
They  agreed  to  propose  to  Sir  Modred  that 
they  should  have  a  month's  delay,  and  mean- 


86  King  Arthur  at  Avalon 

while  agreed  to  meet  him  with  fourteen  persons 
on  each  side,  besides  Arthur  and  Modred. 

Each  of  these  leaders  warned  his  army,  when 
they  met,  to  watch  the  other,  and  not  to  draw 
their  swords  until  they  saw  a  drawn  sword  on 
the  other  side.  In  that  case  they  were  to  come 
on  fiercely.  So  the  small  party  of  chosen  men 
on  each  side  met  and  drank  wine  together, 
and  agreed  upon  a  month's  delay  before  fight 
ing  ;  but  while  this  was  going  on  an  adder 
came  out  of  a  bush  and  stung  a  knight  on  the 
foot,  and  he  drew  his  sword  to  slay  it  and 
thought  of  nothing  farther.  At  the  sight  of 
that  sword  the  two  armies  were  in  motion, 
trumpets  were  blown  instantly,  and  the  men 
of  each  army  thought  that  the  other  army  had 
begun  the  fray.  "  Alas,  this  unhappy  day ! " 
cried  King  Arthur ;  and,  as  the  old  chronicle 
says,  "  nothing  there  was  but  rushing  and  rid 
ing,  fencing  and  striking,  and  many  a  grim 
word  was  there  spoken  either  to  other,  and 
many  a  deadly  stroke." 

The  following  is  the  oldest  account  of  the 
battle,  translated  into  quaint  and  literal  English 


King  Arthur  at  Avalon  87 

by  Madden  from  the  book  called  "Layamon's 
Brut":  "Innumerable  folk  it  came  toward  the 
host,  riding  and  on  foot,  as  the  rain  down  fall- 
eth !  Arthur  marched  to  Cornwall,  with  an 
immense  army.  Modred  heard  that,  and  ad 
vanced  against  him  with  innumerable  folk,  — 
there  were  many  fated !  Upon  the  Tambre 
they  came  together ;  the  place  hight  Camel- 
ford,  evermore  lasted  the  same  word.  And 
at  Camelford  was  assembled  sixty  thousand, 
and  more  thousands  thereto ;  Modred  was  their 
chief.  Then  thitherward  'gan  ride  Arthur  the 
mighty,  with  innumerable  folk,  —  fated  though 
it  were !  Upon  the  Tambre  they  encountered 
together ;  elevated  their  standards ;  advanced 
together ;  drew  their  long  swords ;  smote  on 
the  helms ;  fire  outsprang ;  spears  splintered ; 
shields  'gan  shiver ;  shafts  brake  in  pieces. 
There  fought  all  together  innumerable  folk ! 
Tambre  was  in  flood  with  blood  to  excess ; 
there  might  no  man  in  the  fight  know  any 
warrior,  nor  who  did  worse,  nor  who  better, 
so  was  the  conflict  mingled !  For  each  slew 
downright,  were  he  swain,  were  he  knight. 


88  King  Arthur  at  Avalon 

There  was  Modred  slain,  and  deprived  of  life- 
day,  and  all  his  knights  slain  in  the  fight. 
There  were  slain  all  the  brave,  Arthur's  war 
riors,  high  and  low,  and  all  the  Britons  of 
Arthur's  board,  and  all  his  dependents,  of 
many  kingdoms.  And  Arthur  wounded  with 
broad  slaughter-spear ;  fifteen  dreadful  wounds 
he  had ;  in  the  least  one  might  thrust  two 
gloves !  Then  was  there  no  more  remained 
in  the  fight,  of  two  hundred  thousand  men  that 
there  lay  hewed  in  pieces,  except  Arthur  the 
king  alone,  and  two  of  his  knights.  Arthur 
was  wounded  wondrously  much.  There  came 
to  him  a  lad,  who  was  of  his  kindred ;  he  was 
Cador's  son,  the  earl  of  Cornwall ;  Constantine 
the  lad  hight,  he  was  dear  to  the  king.  Arthur 
looked  on  him,  where  he  lay  on  the  ground, 
and  said  these  words,  with  sorrowful  heart : 
( Constantine,  thou  art  welcome ;  thou  wert 
Cador's  son.  I  give  thee  here  my  kingdom, 
and  defend  thou  my  Britons  ever  in  thy  life, 
and  maintain  them  all  the  laws  that  have  stood 
in  my  days,  and  all  the  good  laws  that  in 
Uther's  days  stood.  And  I  will  fare  to  Ava- 


King  Arthur  at  Avalon  89 

Ion,  to  the  fairest  of  all  maidens,  to  Argante 
the  queen,  an  elf  most  fair,  and  she  shall  make 
my  wounds  all  sound,  make  me  all  whole  with 
healing  draughts.  And  afterwards  I  will  come 
to  my  kingdom,  and  dwell  with  the  Britons 
with  mickle  joy/  Even  with  the  words  there 
approached  from  the  sea  that  was  a  short  boat, 
floating  with  the  waves ;  and  two  women 
therein,  wondrously  formed ;  and  they  took 
Arthur  anon,  and  bare  him  quickly,  and  laid 
him  softly  down,  and  forth  they  'gan  depart. 
Then  was  it  accomplished  that  Merlin  whilom 
said,  that  mickle  care  should  be  of  Arthur's 
departure.  The  Britons  believe  yet  that  he 
is  alive,  and  dwelleth  in  Avalon  with  the  fair 
est  of  all  elves ;  and  the  Britons  ever  yet  expect 
when  Arthur  shall  return.  Was  never  the  man 
born,  of  any  lady  chosen,  that  knoweth,  of  the 
sooth,  to  say  more  of  Arthur.  But  whilom 
was  a  sage  hight  Merlin  ;  he  said  with  words, 
—  his  sayings  were  sooth,  —  that  an  Arthur 
should  yet  come  to  help  the  English." 

Another  traditional  account  which  Tennyson 
has  mainly  followed  in  a  poem,  is  this :  The  king 


90  King  Arthur  at  Avalon 

bade  Sir  Bedivere  take  his  good  sword  Excalibur 
and  go  with  it  to  the  water-side  and  throw  it 
into  the  water  and  return  to  tell  what  he  saw. 
Then  Sir  'Bedivere  took  the  sword,  and  it  was 
so  richly  and  preciously  adorned  that  he  would 
not  throw  it,  and  came  back  without  it.  When 
the  king  asked  what  had  happened,  Sir  Bedi 
vere  said,  "  I  saw  nothing  but  waves  and  wind," 
and  when  Arthur  did  not  believe  him,  and  sent 
him  again,  he  made  the  same  answer,  and  then, 
when  sent  a  third  time,  he  threw  the  sword 
into  the  water,  as  far  as  he  could.  Then  an 
arm  and  a  hand  rose  above  the  water  and 
caught  it,  and  shook  and  brandished  it  three 
times  and  vanished. 

Then  Sir  Bedivere  came  back  to  the  king ; 
he  told  what  he  had  seen.  "  Alas,"  said 
Arthur,  "  help  me  from  hence,  for  I  fear  I 
have  tarried  over  long."  Then  Sir  Bedivere 
took  King  Arthur  upon  his  back,  and  went 
with  him  to  the  water's  side.  And  when  they 
had  reached  there,  a  barge  with  many  fair  ladies 
was  lying  there,  with  many  ladies  in  it,  and 
among  them  three  queens,  and  they  all  had 


King  Arthur  at  Avalon  91 

black  hoods,  and  they  wept  and  shrieked  when 
they  saw  King  Arthur. 

"  Now  put  me  in  the  barge,"  said  Arthur, 
and  the  three  queens  received  him  with  great 
tenderness,  and  King  Arthur  laid  his  head  in 
the  lap  of  one,  and  she  said,  "  Ah,  dear  brother, 
why  have  ye  tarried  so  long,  until  your  wound 
was  cold?"  And  then  they  rowed  away,  and 
King  Arthur  said  to  Sir  Bedivere,  "  I  will  go 
unto  the  valley  of  Avalon  to  heal  my  grievous 
wound,  and  if  I  never  return,  pray  for  my  soul." 
He  was  rowed  away  by  the  weeping  queens, 
and  one  of  them  was  Arthur's  sister  Morgan 
le  Fay ;  another  was  the  queen  of  Northgalis, 
and  the  third  was  the  queen  of  Waste  Lands ; 
and  it  was  the  belief  for  years  in  many  parts 
of  England  that  Arthur  was  not  dead,  but 
would  come  again  to  reign  in  England,  when 
he  had  been  nursed  long  enough  by  Morgan 
le  Fay  in  the  island  of  Avalon. 

The  tradition  was  that  King  Arthur  lived 
upon  this  island  in  an  enchanted  castle  which 
had  the  power  of  a  magnet,  so  that  every  one 
who  came  near  it  was  drawn  thither  and  could 


92  King  Arthur  at  Avalon 

not  get  away.  Morgan  le  Fay  was  its  ruler 
(called  more  correctly  Morgan  la  fee,  or  the 
fairy),  and  her  name  Morgan  meant  sea-born. 
By  one  tradition,  the  queens  who  bore  away 
Arthur  were  accompanied  in  the  boat  by  the 
bard  and  enchanter,  Merlin,  who  had  long  been 
the  king's  adviser,  and  this  is  the  description 
of  the  island  said  to  have  been  given  by  Merlin 
to  another  bard,  Taliessin  :  — 

" c  We  came  to  that  green  and  fertile  island 
which  each  year  is  blessed  with  two  autumns, 
two  springs,  two  summers,  two  gatherings  of 
fruit,  —  the  land  where  pearls  are  found,  where 
the  flowers  spring  as  you  gather  them  —  that 
isle  of  orchards  called  the  "  Isle  of  the  Blessed." 
No  tillage  there,  no  coulter  to  tear  the  bosom 
of  the  earth.  Without  labor  it  affords  wheat 
and  the  grape.  There  the  lives  extend  beyond 
a  century.  There  nine  sisters,  whose  will  is 
the  only  law,  rule  over  those  who  go  from  us 
to  them.  The  eldest  excels  in  the  art  of  heal 
ing,  and  exceeds  her  sisters  in  beauty.  She  is 
called  Morgana,  and  knows  the  virtues  of  all 
the  herbs  of  the  meadow.  She  can  change  her 


King  Arthur  at  Avalon  93 

form,  and  soar  in  the  air  like  a  bird ;  she  can 
be  where  she  pleases  in  a  moment,  and  in  a 
moment  descend  on  our  coasts  from  the  clouds. 
Her  sister  Thiten  is  renowned  for  her  skill  on 
the  harp. 

" c  With  the  prince  we  arrived,  and  Morgana 
received  us  with  fitting  honour.  And  in  her 
own  chamber  she  placed  the  king  on  a  bed  of 
gold,  and  with  delicate  touch,  she  uncovered 
the  wound.  Long  she  considered  it,  and  at 
length  said  to  him  that  she  could  heal  it  if  he 
stayed  long  with  her,  and  willed  her  to  attempt 
her  cure.  Rejoiced  at  this  news,  we  intrusted 
the  king  to  her  care,  and  soon  after  set  sail/  ' 

Sir  Thomas  Malory,  who  wrote  the  book 
called  the  "  Historic  of  King  Arthur,"  or  more 
commonly  the  "  Morte  d' Arthur,"  utters  these 
high  thoughts  concerning  the  memory  of  the 
great  king :  — 

"  Oh,  yee  mightie  and  pompeous  lords,  shin 
ing  in  the  glory  transitory  of  this  unstable  life, 
as  in  raigning  over  great  realmes  and  mightie 
great  countries,  fortified  with  strong  castles  and 
toures,  edified  with  many  a  rich  citie;  yee  also, 


94  King  Arthur  at  Avalon 

yee  fierce  and  mightie  knights,  so  valiant  in 
adventurous  deeds  of  armes ;  behold,  behold, 
see  how  this  mightie  conquerour  king  Arthur, 
whom  in  his  humaine  life  all  the  world  doubted, 
see  also  the  noble  queene  Guenever,  which 
sometime  sat  in  her  chaire  adorned  with  gold, 
pearles,  and  precious  stones,  now  lye  full  low 
in  obscure  fosse  or  pit,  covered  with  clods  of 
earth  and  clay ;  behold  also  this  mightie  cham 
pion  Sir  Launcelot,  pearelesse  of  all  knight 
hood,  see  now  how  hee  lyeth  groveling  upon 
the  cold  mould,  now  being  so  feeble  and  faint 
that  sometime  was  so  terrible.  How  and  in 
what  manner  ought  yee  to  bee  so  desirous  of 
worldly  honour  so  dangerous !  Therefore  mee 
thinketh  this  present  booke  is  right  necessary 
often  to  be  read,  for  in  it  shall  yee  finde  the 
most  gracious,  knightly,  and  vertuous  war  of 
the  most  noble  knights  of  the  world,  whereby 
they  gat  praysing  continually.  Also  mee  seem- 
eth,  by  the  oft  reading  thereof,  yee  shall  greatly 
desire  to  accustome  your  selfe  in  following  of 
those  gracious  knightly  deedes,  that  is  to  say, 
to  dread  God,  and  to  love  righteousnesse,  faith- 


King  Arthur  at  Avalon  95 

fully  and  couragiously  to  serve  your  soveraigne 
prince ;  and  the  more  that  God  hath  given  you 
the  triumphall  honour,  the  meeker  yee  ought 
to  bee,  ever  feareing  the  unstablenesse  of  this 
deceitfull  world." 


XI 

MAELDUIN'S   VOYAGE 

AN  Irish  knight  named  Maelduin  set  forth 
early  in  the  eighth  century  to  seek 
round  the  seas  for  his  father's  mur 
derers.  By  the  advice  of  a  wizard,  he  was  to 
take  with  him  seventeen  companions,  neither 
less  nor  more ;  but  at  the  last  moment  his  three 
foster  brothers,  whom  he  had  not  included, 
begged  to  go  with  him.  He  refused,  and  they 
cast  themselves  into  the  sea  to  swim  after  his 
vessel.  Maelduin  had  pity  on  them  and  took 
them  in,  but  his  disregard  of  the  wizard's  advice 
brought  punishment ;  and  it  was  only  after  long 
wanderings,  after  visiting  multitudes  of  unknown 
and  often  enchanted  islands,  and  after  the  death 
or  loss  of  the  three  foster  brothers,  that  Maelduin 
was  able  to  return  to  his  native  land. 

One   island   which    they    visited   was    divided 
into  four  parts  by  four  fences,  one  of  gold,  one 

96 


Maelduin's  Voyage  97 

of  silver,  one  of  brass,  one  of  crystal.  In  the 
first  division  there  dwelt  kings,  in  the  second 
queens,  in  the  third  warriors,  and  in  the  fourth 
maidens.  The  voyagers  landed  in  the  maidens' 
realm ;  one  of  these  came  out  in  a  boat  and 
gave  them  food,  such  that  every  one  found  in 
it  the  taste  he  liked  best;  then  followed  an 
enchanted  drink,  which  made  them  sleep  for 
three  days  and  three  nights.  When  they 
awakened  they  were  in  their  boat  on  the  sea, 
and  nothing  was  to  be  seen  either  of  island  or 
maidens. 

The  next  island  had  in  it  a  fortress  with  a 
brazen  door  and  a  bridge  of  glass,  on  which 
every  one  who  ascended  it  slipped  and  fell. 
A  woman  came  from  the  fortress,  pail  in  hand, 
drew  water  from  the  sea  and  returned,  not 
answering  them  when  they  spoke.  When  they 
reached  at  last  the  brazen  door  and  struck 
upon  it,  it  made  a  sweet  and  soothing  sound, 
and  they  went  to  sleep,  for  three  days  and 
nights,  as  before.  On  the  fourth  day  a 
maiden  came  who  was  most  beautiful  ;  she  wore 
garments  of  white  silk,  a  white  mantle  with  a 


98  Maelduin's  Voyage 

brooch  of  silver  with  studs  of  gold,  and  a  gold 
band  round  her  hair.  She  greeted  each  man  by 
his  name,  and  said,  "  It  is  long  that  we  have 
expected  you."  She  took  them  into  the  castle 
and  gave  them  every  kind  of  food  they  had  ever 
desired.  Maelduin  was  filled  with  love  for  her 
and  asked  her  for  her  love ;  but  she  told  him 
that  love  was  sin  and  she  had  no  knowledge  of 
sin ;  so  she  left  him.  On  the  morrow  they 
found  their  boat,  stranded  on  a  crag,  while  lady 
and  fortress  and  island  had  all  vanished. 

Another  island  on  which  they  landed  was 
large  and  bare,  with  another  fortress  and  a  palace. 
There  they  met  a  lady  who  was  kinder.  She 
wore  an  embroidered  purple  mantle,  gold  em 
broidered  gloves,  and  ornamented  sandals,  and 
was  just  riding  up  to  the  palace  door.  Seventeen 
maidens  waited  there  for  her.  She  offered  to 
keep  the  strangers  as  guests,  and  that  each  of 
them  should  have  a  wife,  she  herself  wedding 
Maelduin.  She  was,  it  seems,  the  widow  of 
the  king  of  the  island,  and  these  were  her  seven 
teen  daughters.  She  ruled  the  island  and 
went  every  day  to  judge  the  people  and  direct 


The  brazen  door  made  a  sweet  and  soothing  sound,  and  they  went  to  sleep  for  three 
days  and  nights.  On  the  fourth  day  a  maiden  came  who  was  most  beautiful. 
She  greeted  each  man  and  said,  '  It  is  long  that  we  have  expected  you.'  "  —  p.  98 


Maelduin's  Voyage  99 

their  lives.  If  the  strangers  would  stay,  she 
said  that  they  should  never  more  know  sorrow, 
or  hardships,  or  old  age  ;  she  herself,  in  spite 
of  her  large  family,  being  young  and  beautiful 
as  ever.  They  stayed  three  months,  and  it 
seemed  to  all  but  Maelduin  that  the  three 
months  were  three  years.  When  the  queen 
was  absent,  one  day,  the  men  took  the  boat 
and  compelled  Maelduin  to  leave  the  island 
with  them  ;  but  the  queen  rode  after  them  and 
flung  a  rope,  which  Maelduin  caught  and  which 
clung  to  his  hand.  She  drew  them  back  to  the 
shore ;  this  happened  thrice,  and  the  men  ac 
cused  Maelduin  of  catching  the  rope  on  pur 
pose  ;  he  bade  another  man  catch  it,  and  his 
companions  cut  off  his  hand,  and  they  escaped 
at  last. 

On  one  island  the  seafarers  found  three 
magic  apples,  and  each  apple  gave  sufficient 
food  for  forty  nights ;  again,  on  another  island, 
they  found  the  same  apples.  In  another  place 
still,  a  great  bird  like  a  cloud  arrived,  with  a  tree 
larger  than  an  oak  in  its  claws.  After  a  while 
two  eagles  came  and  cleaned  the  feathers  of  the 


ioo  Maelduin's  Voyage 

larger  bird.  They  also  stripped  off  the  red 
berries  from  the  tree  and  threw  them  into  the 
ocean  until  its  foam  grew  red.  The  great 
bird  then  flew  into  the  ocean  and  cleaned  itself. 
This  happened  daily  for  three  days,  when  the 
great  bird  flew  away  with  stronger  wings,  its 
youth  being  thus  renewed. 

They  came  to  another  island  where  many 
people  stood  by  the  shore  talking  and  joking. 
They  were  all  looking  at  Maelduin  and  his  com 
rades,  and  kept  gaping  and  laughing,  but  would 
not  exchange  a  word  with  them.  Then  Mael 
duin  sent  one  of  his  foster  brothers  on  the  island ; 
but  he  ranged  himself  with  the  others  and  did  as 
they  did.  Maelduin  and  his  men  rowed  round 
and  round  the  island,  and  whenever  they  passed 
the  point  where  this  comrade  was,  they  ad 
dressed  him,  but  he  never  answered,  and  only 
gaped  and  laughed.  They  waited  for  him 
a  long  time  and  left  him.  This  island  they 
found  to  be  called  The  Island  of  Joy. 

On  another  island  they  found  sheep  grazing, 
of  enormous  size ;  on  another,  birds,  whose  eggs 
when  eaten  caused  feathers  to  sprout  all  over  the 


Maelduin's  Voyage'  rt>i 

bodies  of  those  who  eat  them.  On  another  they 
found  crimson  flowers,  whose  mere  perfume  suf 
ficed  for  food,  and  they  encountered  women  whose 
only  food  was  apples.  Through  the  window  flew 
three  birds  :  a  blue  one  with  a  crimson  head ;  a 
crimson  one  with  a  green  head ;  a  green  one  with 
a  golden  head.  These  sang  heavenly  music,  and 
were  sent  to  accompany  the  wanderers  on  their 
departing ;  the  queen  of  the  island  gave  them  an 
emerald  cup,  such  that  water  poured  into  it  be 
came  wine.  She  asked  if  they  knew  how  long 
they  had  been  there,  and  when  they  said  "  a  day," 
she  told  them  that  it  was  a  year,  during  which 
they  had  had  no  food.  As  they  sailed  away,  the 
birds  sang  to  them  until  both  birds  and  island 
disappeared  in  the  mist. 

They  saw  another  island  standing  on  a  single 
pedestal,  as  if  on  one  foot,  projecting  from  the 
water.  Rowing  round  it  to  seek  a  way  into  it 
they  found  no  passage,  but  they  saw  in  the  base 
of  the  pedestal,  under  water,  a  closed  door  with  a 
lock — this  being  the  only  way  in  which  the  island 
could  be  entered.  Around  another  island  there 
was  a  fiery  rampart,  which  constantly  moved  in  a 


IO2  Maelduin's  Voyage 

circle.  In  the  side  of  that  rampart  was  an 
open  door,  and  as  it  came  opposite  them  in  its 
turning  course,  they  beheld  through  it  the  island 
and  all  therein ;  and  its  occupants,  even  human 
beings,  were  many  and  beautiful,  wearing  rich 
garments,  and  feasting  with  gold  vessels  in  their 
hands.  The  voyagers  lingered  long  to  gaze 
upon  this  marvel. 

On  another  island  they  found  many  human 
beings,  black  in  color  and  raiment,  and  always 
bewailing.  Lots  were  cast,  and  another  of  Mael- 
duin's  foster  brothers  was  sent  on  shore.  He  at 
once  joined  the  weeping  crowd,  and  did  as  they 
did.  Two  others  were  sent  to  bring  him  back, 
and  both  shared  his  fate,  falling  under  some 
strange  spell.  Then  Maelduin  sent  four  others, 
and  bade  them  look  neither  at  the  land  nor  at 
the  sky  ;  to  wrap  their  mouths  and  noses  with 
their  garments,  and  not  breathe  the  island  air ; 
and  not  to  take  off  their  eyes  from  their  com 
rades.  In  this  way  the  two  who  followed  the 
foster  brother  on  shore  were  rescued,  but  he  re 
mained  behind. 

Of  another  island  they  could  see  nothing  but 


Maelduin's  Voyage  103 

a  fort,  protected  by  a  great  white  rampart,  on 
which  nothing  living  was  to  be  seen  but  a  small 
cat,  leaping  from  one  to  another  of  four  stone 
pillars.  They  found  brooches  and  ornaments 
of  gold  and  silver,  they  found  white  quilts  and 
embroidered  garments  hanging  up,  flitches  of 
bacon  were  suspended,  a  whole  ox  was  roasting, 
and  vessels  stood  filled  with  intoxicating  drinks. 
Maelduin  asked  the  cat  if  all  this  was  for  them  ; 
but  the  cat  merely  looked  at  him  and  went  on 
playing.  The  seafarers  dined  and  drank,  then 
went  to  sleep.  As  they  were  about  to  depart, 
Maelduin's  third  foster  brother  proposed  to 
carry  off  a  tempting  necklace,  and  in  spite  of 
his  leader's  warnings  grasped  it.  Instantly  the 
cat  leaped  through  him  like  a  fiery  arrow,  burned 
him  so  that  he  became  ashes,  and  went  back  to 
its  pillar.  Thus  all  three  of  the  foster  brothers 
who  had  disregarded  the  wizard's  warning,  and 
forced  themselves  upon  the  party,  were  either 
killed  or  left  behind  upon  the  enchanted  islands. 

Around  another  island  there  was  a  demon 
horse-race  going  on  ;  the  riders  were  just  riding 
in  over  the  sea,  and  then  the  race  began  ;  the 


IO4  Maelduin's  Voyage 

voyagers  could  only  dimly  perceive  the  forms 
of  the  horses,  but  could  hear  the  cries  of  their 
riders,  the  strokes  of  the  whips,  and  the  words 
of  the  spectators,  "See  the  gray  horse!"  "Watch 
the  chestnut  horse!"  and  the  voyagers  were  so 
alarmed  that  they  rowed  away.  The  next 
island  was  covered  with  trees  laden  with  golden 
apples,  but  these  were  being  rapidly  eaten  by 
small,  scarlet  animals  which  they  found,  on 
coming  nearer,  to  be  all  made  of  fire  and  thus 
brightened  in  hue.  Then  the  animals  vanished, 
and  Maelduin  with  his  men  landed,  and  though 
the  ground  was  still  hot  from  the  fiery  creatures, 
they  brought  away  a  boat  load  of  the  apples. 
Another  island  was  divided  into  two  parts  by 
a  brass  wall  across  the  middle.  There  were 
two  flocks  of  sheep,  and  those  on  one  side  of 
the  wall  were  white,  while  the  others  were 
black.  A  large  man  was  dividing  and  arrang 
ing  the  sheep,  and  threw  them  easily  over  the 
wall.  When  he  threw  a  white  sheep  among 
the  black  ones  it  became  black,  and  when  he 
threw  a  black  sheep  among  the  white  ones,  it 
became  white  instantly.  The  voyagers  thought 


Maelduin's  Voyage  105 

of  landing,  but  when  Maelduin  saw  this,  he  said, 
"  Let  us  throw  something  on  shore  to  see  if 
it  will  change  color.  If  it  does,  we  will  avoid 
the  island."  So  they  took  a  black  branch  and 
threw  it  toward  the  white  sheep.  When  it 
fell,  it  grew  white ;  and  the  same  with  a  white 
branch  on  the  black  side.  "  It  is  lucky  for 
us,"  said  Maelduin,  "  that  we  did  not  land  on 
this  island." 

They  came  next  to  an  island  where  there 
was  but  one  man  visible,  very  aged,  and  with 
long,  white  hair.  Above  him  were  trees,  cov 
ered  with  great  numbers  of  birds.  The  old 
man  told  them  that  he  like  them  had  come  in 
a  curragh,  or  coracle,  and  had  placed  many 
green  sods  beneath  his  feet,  to  steady  the  boat. 
Reaching  this  spot,  the  green  sods  had  joined 
together  and  formed  an  island  which  at  first 
gave  him  hardly  room  to  stand;  but  every 
year  one  foot  was  added  to  its  size,  and  one 
tree  grew  up.  He  had  lived  there  for  centu 
ries,  and  those  birds  were  the  souls  of  his  chil 
dren  and  descendants,  each  of  whom  was  sent 
there  after  death,  and  they  were  all  fed  from 


io6  Maelduin's  Voyage 

heaven  each  day.  On  the  next  island  there  was 
a  great  roaring  as  of  bellows  and  a  sound  of 
smiths'  hammers,  as  if  striking  all  together  on 
an  anvil,  every  sound  seeming  to  come  from 
the  strokes  of  a  dozen  men.  "  Are  they  near  ?  " 
asked  one  big  voice."  "Silence!"  said  another; 
and  they  were  evidently  watching  for  the  boat. 
When  it  rowed  away,  one  of  the  smiths  flung 
after  them  a  vast  mass  of  red-hot  iron,  which  he 
had  grasped  with  the  tongs  from  the  furnace. 
It  fell  just  short,  but  made  the  whole  sea  to 
hiss  and  boil  around  them  as  they  rowed  away. 
Another  island  had  a  wall  of  water  round 
it,  and  Maelduin  and  his  men  saw  multitudes  of 
people  driving  away  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep, 
and  shouting,  "  There  they  are,  they  have 
come  again ; "  and  a  woman  pelted  them  from 
below  with  great  nuts,  which  the  crew  gathered 
for  eating.  Then  as  they  rowed  away  they 
heard  one  man  say,  "  Where  are  they  now  ? " 
and  another  cried,  "  They  are  going  away." 
Still  again  they  visited  an  island  where  a  great 
stream  of  water  shot  up  into  the  air  and  made 
an  arch  like  a  rainbow  that  spanned  the  land. 


Maelduin's  Voyage  107 

They  walked  below  it  without  getting  wet, 
and  hooked  down  from  it  many  large  salmon; 
besides  that,  many  fell  out  above  their  heads, 
so  that  they  had  more  than  they  could  carry 
away  with  them.  These  are  by  no  means  all  of 
the  strange  adventures  of  Maelduin  and  his  men. 
The  last  island  to  which  they  came  was 
called  Raven's  Stream,  and  there  one  of  the 
men,  who  had  been  very  homesick,  leaped  out 
upon  shore.  As  soon  as  he  touched  the  land 
he  became  a  heap  of  ashes,  as  if  his  body  had 
lain  in  the  earth  a  thousand  years.  This 
showed  them  for  the  first  time  during  how 
vast  a  period  they  had  been  absent,  and  what 
a  space  they  must  have  traversed.  Instead 
of  thirty  enchanted  islands  they  had  visited 
thrice  fifty,  many  of  them  twice  or  thrice  as 
large  as  Ireland,  whence  the  voyagers  first 
came.  In  the  wonderful  experiences  of  their 
long  lives  they  had  apparently  lost  sight  of 
the  search  which  they  had  undertaken,  for 
the  murderers  of  Maelduin's  father,  since  of 
them  we  hear  no  more.  The  island  enchantment 
seems  to  have  banished  all  other  thoughts. 


XII 
THE    VOYAGE   OF   ST.    BRANDAN 

THE  young  student  Brandan  was  awakened 
in  the  morning  by  the  crowing  of  the 
cock  in  the  great  Irish  abbey  where 
he  dwelt;  he  rose,  washed  his  face  and  hands 
and  dressed  himself,  then  passed  into  the 
chapel,  where  he  prayed  and  sang  until  the 
dawn  of  the  day.  "With  song  comes  courage" 
was  the  motto  of  the  abbey.  It  was  one  of 
those  institutions  like  great  colonies,  —  church, 
library,  farm,  workshop,  college,  all  in  one, — 
of  which  Ireland  in  the  sixth  century  was  full, 
and  which  existed  also  elsewhere.  Their  extent 
is  best  seen  by  the  modern  traveller  in  the  re 
mains  of  the  vast  buildings  at  Tintern  in  Eng 
land,  scattered  over  a  wide  extent  of  country, 
where  you  keep  coming  upon  walls  and  frag 
ments  of  buildings  which  once  formed  a  part 
of  a  single  great  institution,  in  which  all  the  life 

108 


The  Voyage  of  St.   Brandan  109 

of  the  community  was  organized,  as  was  the 
case  in  the  Spanish  missions  of  California.  At 
the  abbey  of  Bangor  in  Wales,  for  instance, 
there  were  two  thousand  four  hundred  men, — 
all  under  the  direction  of  a  comparatively  small 
body  of  monks,  who  were  trained  to  an  amount 
of  organizing  skill  like  that  now  needed  for  a 
great  railway  system.  Some  of  these  men  were 
occupied  in  various  mechanic  arts,  some  in  min 
ing,  but  most  of  them  in  agriculture,  which 
they  carried  on  with  their  own  hands,  without 
the  aid  of  animals,  and  in  total  silence. 

Having  thus  labored  in  the  fields  until  noon 
day,  Brandan  then  returned  that  he  might  work 
in  the  library,  transcribing  ancient  manuscripts  or 
illustrating  books  of  prayer.  Having  to  observe 
silence,  he  wrote  the  name  of  the  book  to  give  to 
the  librarian,  and  if  it  were  a  Christian  work,  he 
stretched  out  his  hand,  making  motions  with  his 
fingers  as  if  turning  over  the  leaves ;  but  if  it 
were  by  a  pagan  author,  the  monk  who  asked  for 
it  was  required  to  scratch  his  ear  as  a  dog  does, 
to  show  his  contempt,  because,  the  regulations 
said,  an  unbeliever  might  well  be  compared  to 


no  The  Voyage  of  St.   Brandan 

that  animal.1  Taking  the  book,  he  copied  it 
in  the  Scriptorium  or  library,  or  took  it  to  his 
cell,  where  he  wrote  all  winter  without  a  fire. 
It  is  to  such  monks  that  we  owe  all  our  know 
ledge  of  the  earliest  history  of  England  and 
Ireland;  though  doubtless  the  hand  that  wrote 
the  histories  of  Gildas  and  Bede  grew  as  tired 
as  that  of  Brandan,  or  as  that  of  the  monk  who 
wrote  in  the  corner  of  a  beautiful  manuscript : 
"  He  who  does  not  know  how  to  write  imagines 
it  to  be  no  labor;  but  though  only  three  fingers 
hold  the  pen,  the  whole  body  grows  weary." 
In  the  same  way  Brandan  may  have  learned 
music  and  have  had  an  organ  in  his  monastery, 
or  have  had  a  school  of  art,  painting  beautiful 
miniatures  for  the  holy  missals.  This  was  his 
early  life  in  the  convent. 

Once  a  day  they  were  called  to  food;  this 
consisting  for  them  of  bread  and  vegetables 
with  no  seasoning  but  salt,  although  better  fare 
was  furnished  for  the  sick  and  the  aged,  for 

1  Adde  ut  aurem  tangos  d'tgito  ttcut  canis  cum  pede  pruriens  solety  qula  nee 
immerito  infideles  tali  anitnanti  comparantur.  —  MARTENE,  De  Antlq.  Monacb. 
sy  p.  289,  qu.  by  Montalembert,  Monks  of  the  West  (tr. )  VI.  190. 


The  Voyage  of  St.   Brandan  1 1 1 

travellers  and  the  poor.  These  last  numbered, 
at  Easter  time,  some  three  or  four  hundred,  who 
constantly  came  and  went,  and  upon  whom  the 
monks  and  young  disciples  waited.  After  the 
meal  the  monks  spent  three  hours  in  the  chapel, 
on  their  knees,  still  silent ;  then  they  confessed 
in  turn  to  the  abbot  and  then  sought  their 
hard-earned  rest.  They  held  all  things  in  com 
mon  ;  no  one  even  received  a  gift  for  himself. 
War  never  reached  them ;  it  was  the  rarest 
thing  for  an  armed  party  to  molest  their  com 
posure  ;  their  domains  were  regarded  as  a  haven 
for  the  stormy  world.  Because  there  were  so 
many  such  places  in  Ireland,  it  was  known  as 
The  Isle  of  Saints. 

Brandan  was  sent  after  a  time  to  other 
abbeys,  where  he  could  pursue  especial  studies, 
for  they  had  six  branches  of  learning, — gram 
mar,  rhetoric,  dialectics,  geometry,  astronomy, 
and  music.  Thus  he  passed  three  years,  and 
was  then  advised  to  go  to  an  especial  teacher 
in  the  mountains,  who  had  particular  modes 
of  teaching  certain  branches.  But  this  priest 
—  he  was  an  Italian  —  was  suffering  from  pov- 


H2  The  Voyage  of  St.   Brandan 

erty,  and  could  receive  his  guest  but  for  a  few 
weeks.  One  day  as  Brandan  sat  studying,  he 
saw,  the  legend  says,  a  white  mouse  come 
from  a  crack  in  the  wall,  a  visitor  which  climbed 
upon  his  table  and  left  there  a  grain  of  wheat. 
Then  the  mouse  paused,  looked  at  the  student, 
then  ran  about  the  table,  went  away  and  reap 
peared  with  another  grain,  and  another,  up  to 
five.  Brandan,  who  had  at  the  very  instant 
learned  his  lesson,  rose  from  his  seat,  followed 
the  mouse,  and  looking  through  a  hole  in  the 
wall,  saw  a  great  pile  of  wheat,  stored  in  a  con 
cealed  apartment.  On  his  showing  this  to  the 
head  of  the  convent,  it  was  pronounced  a  miracle ; 
the  food  was  distributed  to  the  poor,  and  "  the 
people  blessed  his  charity  while  the  Lord  blessed 
his  studies." 

In  the  course  of  years,  Brandan  became  him 
self  the  head  of  one  of  the  great  abbeys,  that  of 
Clonfert,  of  the  order  of  St.  Benedict,  where  he 
had  under  him  nearly  three  thousand  monks. 
In  this  abbey,  having  one  day  given  hospitality 
to  a  monk  named  Berinthus,  who  had  just  re 
turned  from  an  ocean  voyage,  Brandan  learned 


The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan  113 

from  him  the  existence,  far  off  in  the  ocean,  of 
an  island  called  The  Delicious  Isle,  to  which  a 
priest  named  Mernoc  had  retired,  with  many 
companions  of  his  order.  Berinthus  found  Mer 
noc  and  the  other  monks  living  apart  from  one 
another  for  purposes  of  prayer,  but  when  they 
came  together,  Mernoc  said,  they  were  like  bees 
from  different  beehives.  They  met  for  their 
food  and  for  church  ;  their  food  included  only 
apples,  nuts,  and  various  herbs.  One  day  Mer 
noc  said  to  Berinthus,  "  I  will  conduct  you  to  the 
Promised  Isle  of  the  Saints."  So  they  went  on 
board  a  little  ship  and  sailed  westward  through 
a  thick  fog  until  a  great  light  shone  and  they 
found  themselves  near  an  island  which  was  large 
and  fruitful  and  bore  many  apples.  There  were 
no  herbs  without  blossoms,  he  said,  nor  trees 
without  fruits,  and  there  were  precious  stones, 
and  the  island  was  traversed  by  a  great  river. 
Then  they  met  a  man  of  shining  aspect  who  told 
them  that  they  had  without  knowing  it  passed 
a  year  already  in  the  island ;  that  they  had 
needed  neither  food  nor  sleep.  Then  they  re 
turned  to  the  Delicious  Island,  and  every  one 


H4  The  Voyage  of  St.   Brandan 

knew  where  they  had  been  by  the  perfume  of 
their  garments.  This  was  the  story  of  Berinthus, 
and  from  this  time  forward  nothing  could  keep 
Brandan  from  the  purpose  of  beholding  for  him 
self  these  blessed  islands. 

Before  carrying  out  his  plans,  however, 
he  went,  about  the  year  560,  to  visit  an 
abbot  named  Enda,  who  lived  at  Arran,  then 
called  Isle  of  the  Saints,  a  priest  who  was 
supposed  to  know  more  than  any  one  concerning 
the  farther  lands  of  the  western  sea.  He  knew, 
for  instance,  of  the  enchanted  island  named  Hy- 
Brasail,  which  could  be  seen  from  the  coast 
of  Ireland  only  once  in  seven  years,  and  which 
the  priests  had  vainly  tried  to  disenchant. 
Some  islands,  it  was  believed,  had  been  already 
disenchanted  by  throwing  on  them  a  few  sparks 
of  lighted  turf;  but  as  Hy-Brasail  was  too  far 
for  this,  there  were  repeated  efforts  to  disenchant 
it  by  shooting  fiery  arrows  towards  it,  though 
this  had  not  yet  been  successful.  Then  Enda 
could  tell  of  wonderful  ways  to  cross  the  sea 
without  a  boat,  how  his  sister  Fanchea  had  done 
it  by  spreading  her  own  cloak  upon  the  waves, 


The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan  115 

and  how  she  and  three  other  nuns  were  borne 
upon  it.  She  found,  however,  that  one  hem  of 
the  cloak  sank  below  the  water,  because  one  of 
her  companions  had  brought  with  her,  against 
orders,  a  brazen  vessel  from  the  convent ;  but 
on  her  throwing  it  away,  the  sinking  hem  rose  to 
the  level  of  the  rest  and  bore  them  safely.  St. 
Enda  himself  had  first  crossed  to  Arran  on  a 
large  stone  which  he  had  ordered  his  followers 
to  place  on  the  water  and  which  floated  before 
the  wind  ;  and  he  told  of  another  priest  who  had 
walked  on  the  sea  as  on  a  meadow  and  plucked 
flowers  as  he  went.  Hearing  such  tales,  how 
could  St.  Brandan  fear  to  enter  on  his  voyage  ? 
He  caused  a  boat  to  be  built  of  a  fashion 
which  one  may  still  see  in  Welsh  and  Irish 
rivers,  and  known  as  a  curragh  or  coracle ; 
made  of  an  osier  frame  covered  with  tanned  and 
oiled  skins.  He  took  with  him  seventeen  priests, 
among  whom  was  St.  Malo,  then  a  mere  boy, 
but  afterwards  celebrated.  They  sailed  to  the 
southwest,  and  after  being  forty  days  at  sea  they 
reached  a  rocky  island  furrowed  with  streams, 
where  they  received  the  kindest  hospitality,  and 


n6  The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan 

took  in  fresh  provisions.  They  sailed  again  the 
next  day,  and  found  themselves  entangled  in 
contrary  currents  and  perplexing  winds,  so  that 
they  were  long  in  reaching  another  island,  green 
and  fertile,  watered  by  rivers  which  were  full  of 
fish,  and  covered  with  vast  herds  of  sheep  as 
large  as  heifers.  Here  they  renewed  their  stock 
of  provisions,  and  chose  a  spotless  lamb  with 
which  to  celebrate  Easter  Sunday  on  another 
island,  which  they  saw  at  a  short  distance. 

This  island  was  wholly  bare,  without  sandy 
shores  or  wooded  slopes,  and  they  all  landed 
upon  it  to  cook  their  lamb ;  but  when  they  had 
arranged  their  cooking-apparatus,  and  when  their 
fire  began  to  blaze,  the  island  seemed  to  move 
beneath  their  feet,  and  they  ran  in  terror  to  their 
boat,  from  which  Brandan  had  not  yet  landed. 
Their  supposed  island  was  a  whale,  and  they 
rowed  hastily  away  from  it  toward  the  island 
they  had  left,  while  the  whale  glided  away,  still 
showing,  at  a  distance  of  two  miles,  the  fire  blaz 
ing  on  his  back. 

The  next  island  they  visited  was  wooded  and 
fertile,  where  they  found  a  multitude  of  birds, 


The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan  117 

which  chanted  with  them  the  praises  of  the  Lord, 
so  that  they  called  this  the  Paradise  of  Birds. 

This  was  the  description  given  of  this  island 
by  an  old  writer  named  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  in 
"The  Golden  Legend"  :  — 

"  Soon  after,  as  God  would,  they  saw  a  fair 
island,  full  of  flowers,  herbs,  and  trees,  whereof 
they  thanked  God  of  his  good  grace ;  and  anon 
they  went  on  land,  and  when  they  had  gone  long 
in  this,  they  found  a  full  fayre  well,  and  thereby 
stood  a  fair  tree  full  of  boughs,  and  on  every 
bough  sat  a  fayre  bird,  and  they  sat  so  thick  on 
the  tree  that  uneath  [scarcely]  any  leaf  of  the  tree 
might  be  seen.  The  number  of  them  was  so 
great,  and  they  sang  so  merrilie,  that  it  was  an 
heavenlie  noise  to  hear.  Whereupon  St.  Bran- 
dan  kneeled  down  on  his  knees  and  wept  for 
joy,  and  made  his  praise  devoutlie  to  our  Lord 
God,  to  know  what  these  birds  meant.  And 
then  anon  one  of  the  birds  flew  from  the  tree 
to  St.  Brandan,  and  he  with  the  flickering  of 
his  wings  made  a  full  merrie  noise  like  a  fiddle, 
that  him  seemed  he  never  heard  so  joyful  a 
melodie.  And  then  St.  Brandan  commanded 


n8  The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan 

the  foule  to  tell  him  the  cause  why  they  sat  so 
thick  on  the  tree  and  sang  so  merrilie.  And 
then  the  foule  said,  some  time  we  were  angels  in 
heaven,  but  when  our  master,  Lucifer,  fell  down 
into  hell  for  his  high  pride,  and  we  fell  with  him 
for  our  offences,  some  higher  and  some  lower, 
after  the  quality  of  the  trespasse.  And  because 
our  trespasse  is  so  little,  therefore  our  Lord  hath 
sent  us  here,  out  of  all  paine,  in  full  great  joy 
and  mirthe,  after  his  pleasing,  here  to  serve  him 
on  this  tree  in  the  best  manner  we  can.  The 
Sundaie  is  a  daie  of  rest  from  all  worldly  occupa 
tion,  and  therefore  that  day  all  we  be  made  as 
white  as  any  snow,  for  to  praise  our  Lorde  in 
the  best  wise  we  may.  And  then  all  the  birds 
began  to  sing  evensong  so  merrilie  that  it  was  an 
heavenlie  noise  to  hear ;  and  after  supper  St. 
Brandan  and  his  fellows  went  to  bed  and  slept 
well.  And  in  the  morn  they  arose  by  times, 
and  then  those  foules  began  mattyns,  prime,  and 
hours,  and  all  such  service  as  Christian  men  used 
to  sing;  and  St.  Brandan,  with  his  fellows, 
abode  there  seven  weeks,  until  Trinity  Sunday 
was  passed." 


The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan  119 

Having  then  embarked,  they  wandered  for 
months  on  the  ocean,  before  reaching  another 
island.  That  on  which  they  finally  landed  was 
inhabited  by  monks  who  had  as  their  patrons 
St.  Patrick  and  St.  Ailbee,  and  they  spent 
Christmas  there.  A  year  passed  in  these  voy 
ages,  and  the  tradition  is  that  for  six  other 
years  they  made  just  the  same  circuit,  always 
spending  Holy  Week  at  the  island  where  they 
found  the  sheep,  alighting  for  Easter  on  the 
back  of  the  same  patient  whale,  visiting  the 
Isle  of  Birds  at  Pentecost,  and  reaching 
the  island  of  St.  Patrick  and  St.  Ailbee  in 
time  for  Christmas. 

But  in  the  seventh  year  they  met  with 
wholly  new  perils.  They  were  attacked,  the 
legend  says,  first  by  a  whale,  then  by  a  griffin, 
and  then  by  a  race  of  cyclops,  or  one-eyed 
giants.  Then  they  came  to  an  island  where 
the  whale  which  had  attacked  them  was  thrown 
on  shore,  so  that  they  could  cut  him  to  pieces  ; 
then  another  island  which  had  great  fruits,  and 
was  called  The  Island  of  the  Strong  Man ;  and 
lastly  one  where  the  grapes  filled  the  air  with 


I2O  The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan 

perfume.  After  this  they  saw  an  island,  all 
cinders  and  flames,  where  the  cyclops  had  their 
forges,  and  they  sailed  away  in  the  light  of  an 
immense  fire.  The  next  day  they  saw,  look 
ing  northward,  a  great  and  high  mountain  send 
ing  out  flames  at  the  top.  Turning  hastily 
from  this  dreadful  sight,  they  saw  a  little 
round  island,  at  the  top  of  which  a  hermit 
dwelt,  who  gave  them  his  benediction.  Then 
they  sailed  southward  once  more,  and  stopped 
at  their  usual  places  of  resort  for  Holy  Week, 
Easter,  and  Whitsuntide. 

It  was  on  this  trip  that  they  had,  so  the 
legend  says,  that  strange  interview  with  Judas 
Iscariot,  out  of  which  Matthew  Arnold  has 
made  a  ballad.  Sailing  in  the  wintry  northern 
seas  at  Christmas  time,  St.  Brandan  saw  an 
iceberg  floating  by,  on  which  a  human  form 
rested  motionless ;  and  when  it  moved  at  last, 
he  saw  by  its  resemblance  to  the  painted  pict 
ures  he  had  seen  that  it  must  be  Judas  Is 
cariot,  who  had  died  five  centuries  before. 
Then  as  the  boat  floated  near  the  iceberg, 
Judas  spoke  and  told  him  his  tale.  After  he 


The  Voyage  of  St.  Brandan  121 

had  betrayed  Jesus  Christ,  after  he  had  died, 
and  had  been  consigned  to  the  flames  of  hell, 
—  which  were  believed  in  very  literally  in  those 
days,  —  an  angel  came  to  him  on  Christmas 
night  and  said  that  he  might  go  thence  and 
cool  himself  for  an  hour.  "  Why  this  mercy  ?  " 
asked  Judas  Iscariot.  Then  the  angel  said 
to  him,  "  Remember  the  leper  in  Joppa,"  and 
poor  Judas  recalled  how  once  when  the  hot 
wind,  called  the  sirocco,  swept  through  the 
streets  of  Joppa,  and  he  saw  a  naked  leper  by 
the  wayside,  sitting  in  agony  from  the  heat 
and  the  drifting  sand,  Judas  had  thrown  his 
cloak  over  him  for  a  shelter  and  received  his 
thanks.  In  reward  for  this,  the  angel  now  told 
him,  he  was  to  have,  once  a  year,  an  hour's 
respite  from  his  pain ;  he  was  allowed  in  that 
hour  to  fling  himself  on  an  iceberg  and  cool 
his  burning  heat  as  he  drifted  through  the 
northern  seas.  Then  St.  Brandan  bent  his 
head  in  prayer ;  and  when  he  looked  up,  the 
hour  was  passed,  and  Judas  had  been  hurried 
back  into  his  torments. 

It  seems  to  have  been  only  after  seven  years 


122  The  Voyage  of  St.   Brandan 

of  this  wandering  that  they  at  last  penetrated 
within  the  obscure  fogs  which  surrounded  the 
Isle  of  the  Saints,  and  came  upon  a  shore 
which  lay  all  bathed  in  sunny  light.  It  was  a 
vast  island,  sprinkled  with  precious  stones,  and 
covered  with  ripe  fruits ;  they  traversed  it  for 
forty  days  without  arriving  at  the  end,  though 
they  reached  a  great  river  which  flowed  through 
the  midst  of  it  from  east  to  west.  There  an 
angel  appeared  to  them,  and  told  them  that  they 
could  go  no  farther,  but  could  return  to  their  own 
abode,  carrying  from  the  island  some  of  those 
fruits  and  precious  stones  which  were  reserved  to 
be  distributed  among  the  saints  when  all  the  world 
should  be  brought  to  the  true  faith.  In  order 
to  hasten  that  time,  it  appears  that  St.  Malo, 
the  youngest  of  the  sea-faring  monks,  had  wished, 
in  his  zeal,  to  baptize  some  one,  and  had  there 
fore  dug  up  a  heathen  giant  who  had  been,  for 
some  reason,  buried  on  the  blessed  isle.  Not 
only  had  he  dug  the  giant's  body  up,  but  St. 
Malo  had  brought  him  to  life  again  sufficiently 
for  the  purpose  of  baptism  and  instruction  in 
the  true  faith ;  after  which  he  gave  him  the  name 


The  Voyage  of  St.   Brandan  123 

of  Mildus,  and  let  him  die  once  more  and  be 
reburied.  Then,  facing  homeward  and  sailing 
beyond  the  fog,  they  touched  once  more  at  The 
Island  of  Delights,  received  the  benediction  of 
the  abbot  of  the  monastery,  and  sailed  for  Ire 
land  to  tell  their  brethren  of  the  wonders  they 
had  seen. 

He  used  to  tell  them  especially  to  his  nurse 
Ita,  under  whose  care  he  had  been  placed  until 
his  fifth  year.  His  monastery  at  Clonfert  grew, 
as  has  been  said,  to  include  three  thousand 
monks ;  and  he  spent  his  remaining  years  in 
peace  and  sanctity.  The  supposed  islands 
which  he  visited  are  still  believed  by  many  to 
have  formed  a  part  of  the  American  continent, 
and  he  is  still  thought  by  some  Irish  scholars  to 
have  been  the  first  to  discover  this  hemisphere, 
nearly  a  thousand  years  before  Columbus, 
although  this  view  has  not  yet  made  much  im 
pression  on  historians.  The  Paradise  of  Birds, 
in  particular,  has  been  placed  by  these  scholars 
in  Mexico,  and  an  Irish  poet  has  written  a  long 
poem  describing  the  delights  to  be  found 
there  :  — 


124  The  Voyage  of  St.   Brandan 

u  Oft,  in  the  sunny  mornings,  have  I  seen 

Bright  yellow  birds,  of  a  rich  lemon  hue, 
Meeting  in  crowds  upon  the  branches  green, 

And  sweetly  singing  all  the  morning  through ; 
And  others,  with  their  heads  grayish  and  dark, 

Pressing  their  cinnamon  cheeks  to  the  old  trees, 
And  striking  on  the  hard,  rough,  shrivelled  bark, 

Like  conscience  on  a  bosom  ill  at  ease. 

"And  diamond-birds  chirping  their  single  notes, 

Now  'mid  the  trumpet-flower's  deep  blossoms  seen, 
Now  floating  brightly  on  with  fiery  throats  — 

Small  winged  emeralds  of  golden  green  ; 
And  other  larger  birds  with  orange  cheeks, 

A  many-color-painted,  chattering  crowd, 
Prattling  forever  with  their  curved  beaks, 

And  through  the  silent  woods  screaming  aloud." 


XIII 

KIRWAN'S   SEARCH    FOR   HY-BRASAIL 

THE  boy  Kirwan  lay  on  one  of  the  steep 
cliffs  of  the  Island  of  Innismane  —  one 
of  the  islands  of  Arran,  formerly  called 
Isles  of  the  Saints.  He  was  looking  across 
the  Atlantic  for  a  glimpse  of  Hy-Brasail.  This 
was  what  they  called  it ;  it  was  a  mysterious 
island  which  Kirwan's  grandfather  had  seen, 
or  thought  he  had  seen  —  and  Kirwan's  father 
also ;  —  indeed,  there  was  not  one  of  the  old  peo 
ple  on  the  island  who  did  not  think  he  had 
seen  it,  and  the  older  they  were,  the  oftener  it 
had  been  seen  by  them,  and  the  larger  it  looked. 
But  Kirwan  had  never  seen  it,  and  whenever  he 
came  to  the  top  of  the  highest  cliff,  where  he 
often  went  bird-nesting,  he  climbed  the  great 
mass  of  granite  called  The  Gregory,  and  peered 
out  into  the  west,  especially  at  sunset,  in  hopes 
that  he  would  at  least  catch  a  glimpse,  some 

125 


126         Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail 

happy  evening,  of  the  cliffs  and  meadows  of 
Hy-Brasail.  But  as  yet  he  had  never  espied 
them.  All  this  was  more  than  two  hundred 
years  ago. 

He  naturally  went  up  to  The  Gregory  at  this 
hour,  because  it  was  then  that  he  met  the  other 
boys,  and  caught  puffins  by  being  lowered  over 
the  cliff.  The  agent  of  the  island  employed 
the  boys,  and  paid  them  a  sixpence  for  every 
dozen  birds,  that  he  might  sell  the  feathers. 
The  boys  had  a  rope  three  hundred  feet  long, 
which  could  reach  the  bottom  of  the  cliff.  One 
of  them  tied  this  rope  around  his  waist,  and 
then  held  it  fast  with  both  hands,  the  rope 
being  held  above  by  four  or  five  strong  boys, 
who  lowered  the  cragman,  or  "clifter,"  as  he 
was  called,  over  the  precipice.  Kirwan  was  thus 
lowered  to  the  rocks  near  the  sea,  where  the 
puffins  bred ;  and,  loosening  the  rope,  he  pre 
pared  to  spend  the  night  in  catching  them.  He 
had  a  pole  with  a  snare  on  the  end,  which  he 
easily  clapped  on  the  heads  of  the  heavy  and 
stupid  birds ;  then  tied  each  on  a  string  as 
he  caught  it,  and  so  kept  it  to  be  hauled  up 


Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail         127 

in  the  morning.  He  took  in  this  way  twenty 
or  thirty  score  of  the  birds,  besides  quantities 
of  their  large  eggs,  which  were  found  in  deep 
clefts  in  the  rock ;  and  these  he  carried  with 
him  when  his  friends  came  in  the  morning  to 
haul  him  up.  It  was  a  good  school  of  cour 
age,  for  sometimes  boys  missed  their  footing 
and  were  dashed  to  pieces.  At  other  times  he 
fished  in  his  father's  boat,  or  drove  calves  for 
sale  on  the  mainland,  or  cured  salt  after  high 
tide  in  the  caverns,  or  collected  kelp  for  the 
farmers.  But  he  was  always  looking  forward 
to  a  time  when  he  might  get  a  glimpse  of  the 
island  of  Hy-Brasail,  and  make  his  way  to  it. 

One  day  when  all  the  fleet  of  fishing-boats 
was  out  for  the  herring  fishery,  and  Kirwan 
among  them,  the  fog  came  in  closer  and  closer, 
and  he  was  shut  apart  from  all  others.  His 
companion  in  the  boat  —  or  dory-mate,  as  it 
would  be  called  in  New  England  —  had  gone 
to  cut  bait  on  board  another  boat,  but  Kirwan 
could  manage  the  boat  well  enough  alone. 
Long  he  toiled  with  his  oars  toward  the  west, 
where  he  fancied  the  rest  of  the  fleet  to  be ;  and 


128          Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail 

sometimes  he  spread  his  little  sprit-sail,  steer 
ing  with  an  oar  —  a  thing  which  was,  in  a  heavy 
sea,  almost  as  hard  as  rowing.  At  last  the 
fog  lifted,  and  he  found  himself  alone  upon  the 
ocean.  He  had  lost  his  bearings  and  could  not 
tell  the  points  of  the  compass.  Presently  out 
of  a  heavy  bank  of  fog  which  rose  against  the 
horizon  he  saw  what  seemed  land.  It  gave 
him  new  strength,  and  he  worked  hard  to  reach 
it;  but  it  was  long  since  he  had  eaten,  his  head 
was  dizzy,  and  he  lay  down  on  the  thwart  of 
the  boat,  rather  heedless  of  what  might  come. 
Growing  weaker  and  weaker,  he  did  not  clearly 
know  what  he  was  doing.  Suddenly  he  started 
up,  for  a  voice  hailed  him  from  above  his  head. 
He  saw  above  him  the  high  stern  of  a  small 
vessel,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  sailor  he  was  helped 
on  board. 

He  found  himself  on  the  deck  of  a  sloop  of 
about  seventy  tons,  John  Nisbet,  master,  with  a 
crew  of  seven  men.  They  had  sailed  from  Kille- 
begs  (County  Donegal),  in  Ireland,  for  the  coast 
of  France,  laden  with  butter,  tallow,  and  hides, 
and  were  now  returning  from  France  with  French 


Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail         129 

wines,  and  were  befogged  as  Kirwan  had  been. 
The  boy  was  at  once  taken  on  board  and  rated 
as  a  seaman ;  and  the  later  adventures  of  the 
trip  are  here  given  as  he  reported  them  on  his 
return  with  the  ship  some  months  later. 

The  mist  continued  thicker  and  thicker  for  a 
time,  and  when  it  suddenly  furled  itself  away, 
they  found  themselves  on  an  unknown  coast,  with 
the  wind  driving  them  shoreward.  There  were 
men  on  board  who  were  familiar  with  the  whole 
coast  of  Ireland  and  Scotland,  but  they  remem 
bered  nothing  like  this.  Finding  less  than  three 
fathoms  of  water,  they  came  to  anchor  and  sent 
four  men  ashore  to  find  where  they  were ;  these 
being  James  Ross  the  carpenter  and  two  sailors, 
with  the  boy  Kirwan.  They  took  swords  and 
pistols.  Landing  at  the  edge  of  a  little  wood, 
they  walked  for  a  mile  within  a  pleasant  valley 
where  cattle,  horses,  and  sheep  were  feeding,  and 
then  came  in  sight  of  a  castle,  small  but  strong, 
where  they  went  to  the  door  and  knocked.  No 
one  answered,  and  they  walked  on,  up  a  green 
hill,  where  there  were  multitudes  of  black  rab 
bits;  but  when  they  had  reached  the  top  and 


i jo         Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail 

looked  around  they  could  see  no  inhabitants, 
nor  any  house;  on  which  they  returned  to  the 
sloop  and  told  their  tale.  After  this  the  whole 
ship's  company  went  ashore,  except  one  left  in 
charge,  and  they  wandered  about  for  hours,  yet 
saw  nothing  more.  As  night  came  on  they 
made  a  fire  at  the  base  of  a  fallen  oak,  near  the 
shore,  and  lay  around  it,  talking,  and  smoking 
the  lately  discovered  weed,  tobacco;  when  sud 
denly  they  heard  loud  noises  from  the  direction 
of  the  castle  and  then  all  over  the  island,  which 
frightened  them  so  that  they  went  on  board 
the  sloop  and  stayed  all  night. 

The  next  morning  they  saw  a  dignified, 
elderly  gentleman  with  ten  unarmed  followers 
coming  down  towards  the  shore.  Hailing  the 
sloop,  the  older  gentleman,  speaking  Gaelic, 
asked  who  and  whence  they  were,  and  being 
told,  invited  them  ashore  as  his  guests.  They 
went  on  shore,  well  armed ;  and  he  embraced 
them  one  by  one,  telling  them  that  they  were 
the  happiest  sight  that  island  had  seen  for  hun 
dreds  of  years ;  that  it  was  called  Hy-Brasail 
or  O-Brazile ;  that  his  ancestors  had  been  princes 


Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail         131 

of  it,  but  for  many  years  it  had  been  taken  pos 
session  of  by  enchanters,  who  kept  it  almost 
always  invisible,  so  that  no  ship  came  there; 
and  that  for  the  same  reason  he  and  his  friends 
were  rendered  unable  to  answer  the  sailors,  even 
when  they  knocked  at  the  door;  and  that  the 
enchantment  must  remain  until  a  fire  was  kin 
dled  on  the  island  by  good  Christians.  This 
had  been  done  the  night  before,  and  the  terrible 
noises  which  they  had  heard  were  from  the 
powers  of  darkness,  which  had  now  left  the 
island  forever. 

And  indeed  when  the  sailors  were  led  to  the 
castle,  they  saw  that  the  chief  tower  had  just 
been  demolished  by  the  powers  of  darkness, 
as  they  retreated ;  but  there  were  sitting  within 
the  halls  men  and  women  of  dignified  appearance, 
who  thanked  them  for  the  good  service  they 
had  done.  Then  they  were  taken  over  the 
island,  which  proved  to  be  some  sixty  miles 
long  and  thirty  wide,  abounding  with  horses, 
cattle,  sheep,  deer,  rabbits,  and  birds,  but  without 
any  swine ;  it  had  also  rich  mines  of  silver  and 
gold,  but  few  people,  although  there  were  ruins 


ij 2         Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail 

of  old  towns  and  cities.  The  sailors,  after  being 
richly  rewarded,  were  sent  on  board  their  vessel 
and  furnished  with  sailing  directions  to  their 
port.  On  reaching  home,  they  showed  to  the 
minister  of  their  town  the  pieces  of  gold  and 
silver  that  were  given  them  at  the  island,  these 
being  of  an  ancient  stamp,  somewhat  rusty  yet 
of  pure  gold  ;  and  there  was  at  once  an  eager 
desire  on  the  part  of  certain  of  the  townsmen  to 
go  with  them.  Within  a  week  an  expedition 
was  fitted  out,  containing  several  godly  minis 
ters,  who  wished  to  visit  and  discover  the  inhabi 
tants  of  the  island  ;  but  through  some  mishap 
of  the  seas  this  expedition  was  never  heard  of 
again. 

Partly  for  this  reason  and  partly  because  none 
of  Captain  Nesbit's  crew  wished  to  return  to  the 
island,  there  came  to  be  in  time  a  feeling  of 
distrust  about  all  this  rediscovery  of  Hy- 
Brasail  or  O-Brazile.  There  were  not  wanting 
those  who  held  that  the  ancient  gold  pieces 
might  have  been  gained  by  piracy,  such  as  was 
beginning  to  be  known  upon  the  Spanish  main  ; 
and  as  for  the  boy  Kirwan,  some  of  his  play- 


Kirwan's  Search  for  Hy-Brasail         133 

mates  did  not  hesitate  to  express  the  opinion 
that  he  had  always  been,  as  they  phrased  it, 
the  greatest  liar  that  ever  spoke.  What  is  cer 
tain  is  that  the  island  of  Brazil  or  Hy-Brasail 
had  appeared  on  maps  ever  since  1367  as  being 
near  the  coast  of  Ireland ;  that  many  voyages 
were  made  from  Bristol  to  find  it,  a  hundred 
years  later;  that  it  was  mentioned  about  1636 
as  often  seen  from  the  shore ;  and  that  it  ap 
peared  as  Brazil  Rock  on  the  London  Admiralty 
Charts  until  after  1850.  If  many  people  tried 
to  find  it  and  failed,  why  should  not  Kirwan 
have  tried  and  succeeded?  And  as  to  his 
stretching  his  story  a  little  by  throwing  in  a  few 
enchanters  and  magic  castles,  there  was  not 
a  voyager  of  his  period  who  was  not  tempted 
to  do  the  same. 


XIV 

THE   ISLE   OF   SATAN'S   HAND 

THE  prosperous  farmer  Conall  Ua  Corra 
in  the  province  of  Connaught  had  every 
thing  to  make  him  happy  except  that  he 
and  his  wife  had  no  children  to  cheer  their  old 
age  and  inherit  their  estate.  Conall  had  prayed 
for  children,  and  one  day  said  in  his  impatience 
that  he  would  rather  have  them  sent  by  Satan 
than  not  have  them  at  all.  A  year  or  two  later 
his  wife  had  three  sons  at  a  birth,  and  when 
these  sons  came  to  maturity,  they  were  so 
ridiculed  by  other  young  men,  as  being  the 
sons  of  Satan,  that  they  said,  "  If  such  is  really 
our  parentage,  we  will  do  Satan's  work."  So 
they  collected  around  them  a  few  villains  and 
began  plundering  and  destroying  the  churches 
in  the  neighborhood  and  thus  injuring  half  the 
church  buildings  in  the  country.  At  last  they 
resolved  to  visit  also  the  church  of  Clothar,  to 


The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand  135 

destroy  it,  and  to  kill  if  necessary  their  mother's 
father,  who  was  the  leading  layman  of  the  parish. 
When  they  came  to  the  church,  they  found  the 
old  man  on  the  green  in  front  of  it,  distributing 
meat  and  drink  to  his  tenants  and  the  people 
of  the  parish.  Seeing  this,  they  postponed  their 
plans  until  after  dark  and  in  the  meantime  went 
home  with  their  grandfather,  to  spend  the  night 
at  his  house.  They  went  to  rest,  and  the  eldest, 
Lochan,  had  a  terrible  dream  in  which  he  saw 
first  the  joys  of  heaven  and  then  the  terrors  of 
future  punishment,  and  then  he  awoke  in  dismay. 
Waking  his  brothers,  he  told  them  his  dream, 
and  that  he  now  saw  that  they  had  been  serving 
evil  masters  and  making  war  upon  a  good  one. 
Such  was  his  bitterness  of  remorse  that  he  con 
verted  them  to  his  views,  and  they  agreed  to 
go  to  their  grandfather  in  the  morning,  renounce 
their  sinful  ways  and  ask  his  pardon. 

This  they  did,  and  he  advised  them  to  go 
to  a  celebrated  saint,  Finnen  of  Clonard,  and 
take  him  as  their  spiritual  guide.  Laying  aside 
their  armor  and  weapons,  they  went  to  Clonard, 
where  all  the  people,  dreading  them  and  know- 


136  The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand 

ing  their  wickedness,  fled  for  their  lives,  except 
the  saint  himself,  who  came  forward  to  meet  them. 
With  him  the  three  brothers  undertook  the  most 
austere  religious  exercises,  and  after  a  year  they 
came  to  St.  Finnen  and  asked  his  punish 
ment  for  their  former  crimes.  "  You  cannot," 
he  said,  "  restore  to  life  those  you  have  slain,  but 
you  can  at  least  restore  the  buildings  you  have 
devastated  and  ruined."  So  they  went  and 
repaired  many  churches,  after  which  they  re 
solved  to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  upon  the  great 
Atlantic  Ocean.  They  built  for  themselves 
therefore  a  curragh  or  coracle,  covered  with 
hides  three  deep.  It  was  capable  of  carrying 
nine  persons,  and  they  selected  five  out  of  the 
many  who  wished  to  join  the  party.  There 
were  a  bishop,  a  priest,  a  deacon,  a  musician, 
and  the  man  who  had  modelled  the  boat ;  and 
with  these  they  pushed  out  to  sea. 

It  had  happened  some  years  before  that  in 
a  quarrel  about  a  deer  hunt,  the  men  of  Ross 
had  killed  the  king.  It  had  been  decided  that, 
by  way  of  punishment,  sixty  couples  of  the 
people  of  Ross  should  be  sent  out  to  sea,  two 


The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand  137 

and  two,  in  small  boats,  to  meet  what  fate  they 
might  upon  the  deeps.  They  were  watched 
that  they  might  not  land  again,  and  for  many 
years  nothing  more  had  been  heard  from  them. 
The  most  pious  task  which  these  repenting 
pilgrims  could  undertake,  it  was  thought,  would 
be  to  seek  these  banished  people.  They  re 
solved  to  spread  their  sail  and  let  Providence 
direct  their  course.  They  went,  therefore,  north 
west  on  the  Atlantic,  where  they  visited  several 
wonderful  islands,  on  one  of  which  there  was  a 
great  bird  which  related  to  them,  the  legend 
says,  the  whole  history  of  the  world,  and  gave 
them  a  great  leaf  from  a  tree  —  the  leaf  being 
as  large  as  an  ox-hide,  and  being  preserved  for 
many  years  in  one  of  the  churches  after  their 
return.  At  the  next  island  they  heard  sweet 
human  voices,  and  found  that  the  sixty  ban 
ished  couples  had  established  their  homes  there. 
The  pilgrims  then  went  onward  in  their  hide 
bound  boat  until  they  reached  the  coast  of 
Spain,  and  there  they  landed  and  dwelt  for  a 
time.  The  bishop  built  a  church,  and  the 
priest  officiated  in  'it,  and  the  organist  took 


138  The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand 

charge  of  the  music.  All  prospered ;  yet  the 
boat-builder  and  the  three  brothers  were  never 
quite  contented,  for  they  had  roamed  the  seas 
too  long ;  and  they  longed  for  a  new  enter 
prise  for  their  idle  valor.  They  thought  they 
had  found  this  when  one  day  they  found  on 
the  sea-coast  a  group  of  women  tearing  their 
hair,  and  when  they  asked  the  explanation, 
"  Senor,"  said  an  old  woman,  "  our  sons  and 
our  husbands  hare  again  fallen  into  the  hand 
of  Satan."  At  this  the  three  brothers  were 
startled,  for  they  remembered  well  how  they 
used,  in  youth,  to  rank  themselves  as  Satan's 
children.  Asking  farther,  they  learned  that  a 
shattered  boat  they  saw  on  the  beach  was  one 
of  a  pair  of  boats  which  had  been  carried  too 
far  out  to  sea,  and  had  come  near  an  islet 
which  the  sailors  called  Isla  de  la  Man  Sata- 
naxio,  or  The  Island  of  Satan's  Hand.  It  ap 
peared  that  in  that  region  there  was  an  islet  so 
called,  always  surrounded  by  chilly  mists  and 
water  of  a  deadly  cold ;  that  no  one  had  ever 
reached  it,  as  it  constantly  changed  place ;  but 
that  a  demon  hand  sometimes  uprose  from  it, 


A  demon  hand  sometimes  uprose  from  the  islet  and  plucked  away  men  and  even 
whole  boats,  which,  when  once  grasped,  usually  by  night,  were  never  seen  again, 
but  perished  helplessly. "  —  p.  139 


The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand  139 

and  plucked  away  men  and  even  whole  boats, 
which,  when  once  grasped,  usually  by  night, 
were  never  seen  again,  but  perished  helplessly, 
victims  of  Satan's  Hand. 

When  the  voyagers  laughed  at  this  legend, 
the  priest  of  the  village  showed  them,  on  the 
early  chart  of  Bianco,  the  name  of  "  De  la  Man 
Satanagio,"  and  on  that  of  Beccaria  the  name 
"  Satanagio "  alone,  both  these  being  the  titles 
of  islands.  Not  alarmed  at  the  name  of  Satan, 
as  being  that  of  one  whom  they  had  sup 
posed,  in  their  days  of  darkness,  to  be  their 
patron,  they  pushed  boldly  out  to  sea  and 
steered  westward,  a  boat-load  of  Spanish  fisher 
men  following  in  their  wake.  Passing  island 
after  island  of  green  and  fertile  look,  they 
found  themselves  at  last  in  what  seemed  a  less 
favored  zone  —  as  windy  as  the  "  roaring 
forties,"  and  growing  chillier  every  hour.  Fogs 
gathered  quickly,  so  that  they  could  scarcely 
see  the  companion  boat,  and  the  Spanish  fisher 
men  called  out  to  them,  "  Garda  da  la  Man 
do  Satanaxio!"  ("Look  out  for  Satan's  hand!") 

As    they    cried,    the  fog    became    denser    yet, 


140  The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand 

and  when  it  once  parted  for  a  moment,  some 
thing  that  lifted  itself  high  above  them,  like  a 
gigantic  hand,  showed  itself  an  instant,  and 
then  descended  with  a  crushing  grasp  upon 
the  boat  of  the  Spanish  fishermen,  breaking  it 
to  pieces,  and  dragging  some  of  the  men  be 
low  the  water,  while  others,  escaping,  swam 
through  the  ice-cold  waves,  and  were  with 
difficulty  taken  on  board  the  coracle ;  this 
being  all  the  harder  because  the  whole  surface 
of  the  water  was  boiling  and  seething  furiously. 
Rowing  away  as  they  could  from  this  perilous 
neighborhood,  they  lay  on  their  oars  when  the 
night  came  on,  not  knowing  which  way  to  go. 
Gradually  the  fog  cleared  away,  the  sun  rose 
clearly  at  last,  and  wherever  they  looked  on 
the  deep  they  saw  no  traces  of  any  island,  still 
less  of  the  demon  hand.  But  for  the  presence 
among  them  of  the  fishermen  they  had  picked 
up,  there  was  nothing  to  show  that  any  casualty 
had  happened. 

That  day  they  steered  still  farther  to  the 
west  with  some  repining  from  the  crew,  and  at 
night  the  same  fog  gathered,  the  same  deadly 


The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand  141 

chill  came  on.  Finding  themselves  in  shoal 
water,  and  apparently  near  some  island,  they 
decided  to  anchor  the  boat;  and  as  the  man 
in  the  bow  bent  over  to  clear  away  the  anchor, 
something  came  down  upon  him  with  the  same 
awful  force,  and  knocked  him  overboard.  His 
body  could  not  be  recovered,  and  as  the  wind 
came  up,  they  drove  before  it  until  noon  of  the 
next  day,  seeing  nothing  of  any  land  and  the 
ocean  deepening  again.  By  noon  the  fog 
cleared,  and  they  saw  nothing,  but  cried  with 
one  voice  that  the  boat  should  be  put  about, 
and  they  should  return  to  Spain.  For  two 
days  they  rowed  in  peace  over  a  summer  sea ; 
then  came  the  fog  again  and  they  laid  on  their 
oars  that  night.  All  around  them  dim  islands 
seemed  to  float,  scarcely  discernible  in  the  fog; 
sometimes  from  the  top  of  each  a  point  would 
show  itself,  as  of  a  mighty  hand,  and  they 
could  hear  an  occasional  plash  and  roar,  as  if 
this  hand  came  downwards.  Once  they  heard 
a  cry,  as  if  of  sailors  from  another  vessel. 
Then  they  strained  their  eyes  to  gaze  into  the 
fog,  and  a  whole  island  seemed  to  be  turning 


142  The  Isle  of  Satan's  Hand 

itself  upside  down,  its  peak  coming  down,  while 
its  base  went  uppermost,  and  the  whole  water 
boiled  for  leagues  around,  as  if  both  earth  and 
sea  were  upheaved. 

The  sun  rose  upon  this  chaos  of  waters.  No 
demon  hand  *was  anywhere  visible,  nor  any 
island,  but  a  few  icebergs  were  in  sight,  and 
the  frightened  sailors  rowed  away  and  made 
sail  for  home.  It  was  rare  to  see  icebergs  so 
far  south,  and  this  naturally  added  to  the 
general  dismay.  Amid  the  superstition  of  the 
sailors,  the  tales  grew  and  grew,  and  all  the  ter 
rors  became  mingled.  But  tradition  says  that 
there  were  some  veteran  Spanish  sailors  along 
that  coast,  men  who  had  sailed  on  longer  voy 
ages,  and  that  these  persons  actually  laughed 
at  the  whole  story  of  Satan's  Hand,  saying  that 
any  one  who  had  happened  to  see  an  iceberg 
topple  over  would  know  all  about  it.  It  was 
more  generally  believed,  however,  that  all  this 
was  mere  envy  and  jealousy ;  the  daring  fisher 
men  remained  heroes  for  the  rest  of  their  days ; 
and  it  was  only  within  a  century  or  two  that  the 
island  of  Satanaxio  disappeared  from  the  charts. 


XV 


ANTILLIA,   THE   ISLAND    OF   THE   SEVEN 
CITIES 

THE  young  Spanish  page,  Luis  de  Vega, 
had  been  for  some  months  at  the  court 
of  Don  Rodrigo,  king  of  Spain,  when 
he  heard  the  old  knights  lamenting,  as  they  came 
out  of  the  palace  at  Toledo,  over  the  king's  last 
and  most  daring  whim.  "  He  means,"  said  one 
of  them  in  a  whisper,  "  to  penetrate  the  secret 
cave  of  the  Gothic  kings,  that  cave  on  which 
each  successive  sovereign  has  put  a  padlock." 

"  Till  there  are  now  twenty-seven  of  them," 
interrupted  a  still  older  knight. 

"  And  he  means,"  said  the  first,  frowning  at 
the  interruption,  "to  take  thence  the  treasures 
of  his  ancestors." 

"Indeed,  he  must  do  it,"  said  another,  "else 
the  son  of  his  ancestors  will  have  no  treasure 
left  of  his  own." 

"  But  there  is  a  spell  upon  it,"  said  the  other. 


144     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

"  For  ages  Spain  has  been  threatened  with  in 
vasion,  and  it  is  the  old  tradition  that  the  only 
talisman  which  can  prevent  it  is  in  this  cave." 

"  Well,"  said  the  scoffer,  "  it  is  only  by  enter 
ing  the  cave  that  he  can  possess  the  talisman." 

"  But  if  he  penetrates  to  it,  his  power  is  lost." 

"A  pretty  talisman,"  said  the  other.  "It  is 
only  of  use  to  anybody  so  long  as  no  one  sees 
it.  Were  I  the  king  I  would  hold  it  in  my 
hands.  And  I  have  counselled  him  to  heed 
no  graybeards,  but  to  seize  the  treasure  for 
himself.  I  have  offered  to  accompany  him." 

"  May  it  please  your  lordship,"  said  the 
eager  Luis,  "  may  I  go  with  you  ? " 

"Yes,"  said  Don  Alonzo  de  Carregas,  turn 
ing  to  the  ardent  boy.  "Where  the  king  goes 
I  go,  and  where  I  go  thou  shalt  be  my  com 
panion.  See,  senors,"  he  said,  turning  to  the 
others,  cc  how  the  ready  faith  of  boyhood  puts 
your  fears  to  shame.  To  his  Majesty  the  ter 
rors  of  this  goblin  cave  are  but  a  jest  which 
frightens  the  old  and  only  rouses  the  young 
to  courage.  The  king  may  find  the  recesses 
of  the  cavern  filled  with  gold  and  jewels;  he 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     145 

who  goes  with  him  may  share  them.      This  boy 
is  my  first  recruit :  who  follows  ? " 

By  this  time  a  whole  group  of  courtiers,  young 
and  old,  had  assembled  about  Don  Alonzo,  and 
every  man  below  thirty  years  was  ready  to 
pledge  himself  to  the  enterprise.  But  the  older 
courtiers  and  the  archbishop  Oppas  were  be 
seeching  the  king  to  refrain.  "  Respect,  O 
king,"  they  said,  "  the  custom  held  sacred  by 
twenty-seven  of  thy  predecessors.  Give  us  but 
an  estimate  of  the  sum  that  may,  in  thy  kingly 
mind,  represent  the  wealth  that  is  within  the 
cavern  walls,  and  we  will  raise  it  on  our  own 
domains,  rather  than  see  the  sacred  tradition 
set  at  nought."  The  king's  only  answer  was, 
"  Follow  me,"  Don  Alonzo  hastily  sending  the 
boy  Luis  to  collect  the  younger  knights  who 
had  already  pledged  themselves  to  the  enter 
prise-.  A  gallant  troop,  they  made  their  way 
down  the  steep  steps  which  led  from  the  palace 
to  the  cave.  The  news  had  spread;  the  ladies 
had  gathered  on  the  balconies,  and  the  bright 
face  of  one  laughing  girl  looked  from  a  bower 
window,  while  she  tossed  a  rose  to  the  happy 


146     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

Luis.  Alas,  it  fell  short  of  its  mark  and  hit  the 
robes  of  Archbishop  Oppas,  who  stood  with 
frowning  face  as  the  youngster  swept  by.  The 
archbishop  crushed  it  unwittingly  in  the  hand 
that  held  the  crosier. 

The  rusty  padlocks  were  broken,  and  each 
fell  clanking  on  the  floor,  and  was  brushed 
away  by  mailed  heels.  They  passed  from  room 
to  room  with  torches,  for  the  cavern  extended 
far  beneath  the  earth ;  yet  they  found  no 
treasure  save  the  jewelled  table  of  Solomon. 
But  for  their  great  expectations,  this  table  alone 
might  have  proved  sufficient  to  reward  their 
act  of  daring.  Some  believed  that  it  had  been 
brought  by  the  Romans  from  Solomon's  temple, 
and  from  Rome  by  the  Goths  and  Vandals  who 
sacked  that  city  and  afterwards  conquered  Spain; 
but  all  believed  it  to  be  sacred,  and  now  saw  it 
to  be  gorgeous.  Some  describe  it  as  being  of 
gold,  set  with  precious  stones;  others,  as  of  gold 
and  silver,  making  it  yellow  and  white  in  hue, 
ornamented  with  a  row  of  pearls,  a  row  of 
rubies,  and  another  row  of  emeralds.  It  is  gen 
erally  agreed  that  it  stood  on  three  hundred  and 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     147 

sixty  feet,  each  made  of  a  single  emerald.  Being 
what  it  was,  the  king  did  not  venture  to  remove 
it,  but  left  it  where  it  was.  Traversing  chamber 
after  chamber  and  finding  all  empty,  they  at 
last  found  all  passages  leading  to  the  inmost 
apartment,  which  had  a  marble  urn  in  the  centre. 
Yet  all  eyes  presently  turned  from  this  urn  to 
a  large  painting  on  the  wall  which  displayed  a 
troop  of  horsemen  in  full  motion.  Their 
horses  were  of  Arab  breed,  their  arms  were 
scimitars  and  lances,  with  fluttering  pennons; 
they  wore  turbans,  and  their  coarse  black  hair 
fell  over  their  shoulders ;  they  were  dressed  in 
skins.  Never  had  there  been  seen  by  the  cour 
tiers  a  mounted  troop  so  wild,  so  eager,  so  for 
midable.  Turning  from  them  to  the  marble 
urn,  the  king  drew  from  it  a  parchment, 'which 
said:  "These  are  the  people  who,  whenever  this 
cave  is  entered  and  the  spell  contained  in  this 
urn  is  broken,  shall  possess  this  country.  An 
idle  curiosity  has  done  its  work/' 1 

1  "  Latinas  letras  a  la  mar  gen  puestas 

Declan  :  —  *  Cuando  aquata  pucrta  y  area 

Fueran  abiertaSj  gentes  como  estas 

Pondrdn  por  tierra  cuanto  Espafla  abarca. '  ' ' 

—  LOPE  DE  VEGA. 


148     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

The  rash  king,  covering  his  eyes  with  his 
hands,  fled  outward  from  the  cavern  ;  his  knights 
followed  him,  but  Don  Alonzo  lingered  last 
except  the  boy  Luis.  "  Nevertheless,  my  lord," 
said  Luis,  "  I  should  like  to  strike  a  blow  at 
these  bold  barbarians."  "  We  may  have  an 
opportunity,"  said  the  gloomy  knight.  He 
closed  the  centre  gate  of  the  cavern,  and  tried 
to  replace  the  broken  padlocks,  but  it  was  in 
vain.  In  twenty-four  hours  the  story  had  trav 
elled  over  the  kingdom. 

The  boy  Luis  little  knew  into  what  a  complex 
plot  he  was  drifting.  In  the  secret  soul  of  his 
protector,  Don  Alonzo,  there  burned  a  great 
anger  against  the  weak  and  licentious  king. 
He  and  his  father,  Count  Julian,  and  Arch 
bishop  Oppas,  his  uncle,  were  secretly  brooding 
plans  of  wrath  against  Don  Rodrigo  for  his 
ill  treatment  of  Don  Alonzo's  sister,  Florinda. 
Rumors  had  told  them  that  an  army  of  strange 
warriors  from  Africa,  who  had  hitherto  carried 
all  before  them,  were  threatening  to  cross  the 
straits  not  yet  called  Gibraltar,  and  descend  on 
Spain.  All  the  ties  of  fidelity  held  these  cour- 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     149 

tiers  to  the  king ;  but  they  secretly  hated  him, 
and  wished  for  his  downfall.  By  the  next  day 
they  had  planned  to  betray  him  to  the  Moors. 
Count  Julian  had  come  to  make  his  military 
report  to  Don  Rodrigo,  and  on  some  pretext 
had  withdrawn  Florinda  from  the  court.  "When 
you  come  again,"  said  the  pleasure-loving  king, 
"  bring  me  some  hawks  from  the  south,  that 
we  may  again  go  hawking."  "  I  will  bring  you 
hawks  enough,"  was  the  answer,  "and  such  as 
you  never  saw  before."  "  But  Rodrigo,"  says 
the  Arabian  chronicler,  "did  not  understand 
the  full  meaning  of  his  words." 

It  was  a  hard  blow  for  the  young  Luis  when 
he  discovered  what  a  plot  was  being  urged 
around  him.  He  would  gladly  have  been 
faithful  to  the  king,  worthless  as  he  knew  him 
to  be ;  but  Don  Alonzo  had  been  his  benefactor, 
and  he  held  by  him.  Meanwhile  the  conspiracy 
drew  towards  completion,  and  the  Arab  force 
was  drawing  nearer  to  the  straits.  A  single 
foray  into  Spain  had  shown  Musa,  the  Arab 
general,  the  weakness  of  the  kingdom ;  that  the 
cities  were  unfortified,  the  citizens  unarmed,  and 


150     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

many  of  the  nobles  lukewarm  towards  the  king. 
"  Hasten,"  he  said,  "  towards  that  country  where 
the  palaces  are  filled  with  gold  and  silver,  and 
the  men  cannot  fight  in  their  defence."  Accord 
ingly,  in  the  early  spring  of  the  year  711,  Musa 
sent  his  next  in  command,  Tarik,  to  cross  to 
Spain  with  an  army  of  seven  thousand  men,  con 
sisting  mostly  of  chosen  cavalry.  They  crossed 
the  straits  then  called  the  Sea  of  Narrowness, 
embarking  the  troops  at  Tangier  and  Ceute  in 
many  merchant  vessels,  and  landing  at  that 
famous  promontory  called  thenceforth  by  the 
Arab  general's  name,  the  Rock  of  Tarik, 
Dschebel-Tarik,  or,  more  briefly,  Gibraltar. 

Luis,  under  Don  Alonzo,  was  with  the  Span 
ish  troops  sent  hastily  down  to  resist  the  Arab 
invaders,  and,  as  these  troops  were  mounted, 
he  had  many  opportunities  of  seeing  the  new 
enemies  and  observing  their  ways.  The'y  were 
a  picturesque  horde ;  their  breasts  were  cov 
ered  with  mail  armor;  they  wore  white  turbans 
on  their  heads,  carried  their  bows  slung  across 
their  backs,  and  their  swords  suspended  to  their 
girdles,  while  they  held  their  long  spears  firmly 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     151 

grasped  in  their  hands.  The  Arabs  said  that 
their  fashion  of  mail  armor  had  come  to  them 
from  King  David,  "  to  whom,"  they  said,  "God 
made  iron  soft,  and  it  became  in  his  hands  as 
thread."  More  than  half  of  them  were  mounted 
on  the  swift  horses  which  were  peculiar  to  their 
people ;  and  the  white,  red,  and  black  turbans 
and  cloaks  made  a  most  striking  picture  around 
the  camp-fires.  These  men,  too,  were  already 
trained  and  successful  soldiers,  held  together 
both  by  a  common  religion  and  by  the  hope  of 
spoil.  There  were  twelve  thousand  of  them  by 
the  most  probable  estimate,  —  for  Musa  had  sent 
reinforcements,  —  and  they  had  against  them 
from  five  to  eight  times  their  number.  But  of 
the  Spaniards  only  a  small  part  were  armed  or 
drilled,  or  used  to  warfare,  and  great  multitudes 
of  them  had  to  put  their  reliance  in  clubs,  slings, 
axes,  and  short  scythes.  The  cavalry  were  on 
the  wings,  where  Luis  found  himself,  with  Count 
Julian  and  Archbishop  Oppas  to  command  them. 
Soon,  however,  Don  Alonzo  and  Luis  were  de 
tached,  with  others,  to  act  as  escort  to  the  king, 
Don  Rodrigo. 


152     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

The  battle  began  soon  after  daybreak  on 
Sunday,  July  19,  711.  As  the  Spanish  troops 
advanced,  their  trumpets  sounded  defiance  and 
were  answered  by  Moorish  horns  and  kettle 
drums.  While  they  drew  near,  the  shouts  of  the 
Spaniards  were  drowned  in  the  lelie  of  the  Arabs, 
the  phrase  La  ila-ba  ella-llah  —  there  is  no  deity 
but  God.  As  they  came  nearer  yet,  there  is  a 
tradition  that  Rodrigo  looking  on  the  Moslem, 
said,  "  By  the  faith  of  the  Messiah,  these  are  the 
very  men  I  saw  painted  on  the  walls  of  the  cave 
at  Toledo."  Yet  he  certainly  bore  himself  like  a 
king,  and  he  rode  on  the  battle-field  in  a  chariot 
of  ivory  lined  with  gold,  having  a  silken  awning 
decked  with  pearls  and  rubies,  while  the  vehicle 
was  drawn  by  three  white  mules  abreast.  He 
was  then  nearly  eighty,  and  was  dressed  in  a 
silken  robe  embroidered  with  pearls.  He  had 
brought  with  him  in  carts  and  on  mules  his 
treasures  in  jewels  and  money ;  and  he  had 
trains  of  mules  whose  only  load  consisted  of 
ropes,  to  bind  the  arms  of  his  captives,  so  sure 
was  he  of  making  every  Arab  his  prisoner. 
Driving  along  the  lines  he  addressed  his  troops 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     153 

boldly,  and  arriving  at  the  centre  quitted  his 
chariot,  put  on  a  horned  helmet,  and  mounted 
his  white  horse  Orelio. 

This  was  before  the  invention  of  gunpowder, 
and  all  battles  were  hand  to  hand.  On  the  first 
day  the  result  was  doubtful,  and  Tarik  rode 
through  the  Arab  ranks,  calling  on  them  to  fight 
for  their  religion  and  their  safety.  As  the  onset 
began,  Tarik  rode  furiously  at  a  Spanish  chief 
whom  he  took  for  the  king,  and  struck  him 
down.  For  a  moment  it  was  believed  to  be  the 
king  whom  he  had  killed,  and  from  that  moment 
new  energy  was  given  to  the  Arabs.  The  line 
of  the  Spaniards  wavered  ;  and  at  this  moment 
the  whole  wing  of  cavalry  to  which  Luis  be 
longed  rode  out  from  its  place  and  passed  on 
the  flank  of  the  army,  avoiding  both  Spaniard 
and  Arab.  "  What  means  this  ?  "  said  Luis 
to  the  horseman  by  his  side.  "  It  means,"  was 
the  answer,  "  that  Bishop  Oppas  is  betraying  the 
king."  At  this  moment  Don  Alonzo  rode  up 
and  cheered  their  march  with  explanations. 
"  No  more,"  he  said,  "  will  we  obey  this  imbecile 
old  king  who  can  neither  fight  nor  govern.  He 


154     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

and  his  troops  are  but  so  many  old  women  ;  it 
is  only  these  Arabs  who  are  men.  All  is  ar 
ranged  with  Tarik,  and  we  will  save  our  country 
by  joining  the  only  man  who  can  govern  it." 
Luis  groaned  in  dismay ;  it  seemed  to  him  an 
act  of  despicable  treachery  ;  but  those  around 
him  seemed  mostly  prepared  for  it,  and  he  said 
to  himself,  "After  all,  Don  Alonzo  is  my  chief; 
I  must  hold  by  him ; "  so  he  kept  with  the 
others,  and  the  whole  cavalry  wing  followed 
Oppas  to  a  knoll,  whence  they  watched  the  fight. 
It  soon  became  a  panic ;  the  Arabs  carried  all 
before  them,  and  the  king  himself  was  either 
killed  or  hid  himself  in  a  convent. 

Many  a  Spaniard  of  the  seceding  wing  of 
cavalry  reproached  himself  afterwards  for  what 
had  been  done ;  and  while  the  archbishop  had 
some  influence  with  the  conquering  general  and 
persuaded  him  to  allow  the  Christians  every 
where  to  retain  a  part  of  their  churches,  yet  he 
had,  after  all,  the  reward  of  a  traitor  in  contempt 
and  self-reproach.  This  he  could  bear  no 
longer,  and  organizing  an  expedition  from  a 
Spanish  port,  he  and  six  minor  bishops,  with 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     155 

many  families  of  the  Christians,  made  their  way 
towards  Gibraltar.  They  did  not  make  their 
escape,  however,  without  attracting  notice  and 
obstruction.  As  they  rode  among  the  hills  with 
their  long  train,  soldiers,  ecclesiastics,  women, 
and  children,  they  saw  a  galloping  band  of  Arabs 
in  pursuit.  The  archbishop  bade  them  turn 
instantly  into  a  deserted  castle  they  were  just 
passing,  to  drop  the  portcullis  and  man  the 
walls.  That  they  might  look  as  numerous  as 
possible,  he  bade  all  the  women  dress  themselves 
like  men  and  tie  their  long  hair  beneath  their 
chins  to  resemble  beards.  He  then  put  helmets 
on  their  heads  and  lances  in  their  hands,  and  thus 
the  Arab  leader  saw  a  formidable  host  on  the 
walls  to  be  besieged.  In  obedience,  perhaps,  to 
orders,  he  rode  away  and  after  sufficient  time  had 
passed,  the  archbishop's  party  rode  onward 
towards  their  place  of  embarkation.  Luis  found 
himself  beside  a  dark-eyed  maiden,  who  ambled 
along  on  a  white  mule,  and  when  he  ventured 
to  joke  her  a  little  on  her  late  appearance  as  an 
armed  cavalier,  she  said  coyly,  "  Did  you  think 
my  only  weapons  were  roses  ? "  Looking 


156     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

eagerly  at  her,  he  recognized  the  laughing  face 
which  he  had  once  seen  at  a  window ;  but  ere 
he  could  speak  again  she  had  struck  her  mule 
lightly  and  taken  refuge  beside  the  archbishop, 
where  Luis  dared  not  venture.  He  did  not 
recognize  the  maiden  again  till  they  met  on 
board  one  of  the  vessels  which  the  Arabs  had 
left  at  Gibraltar,  and  on  which  they  embarked  for 
certain  islands  of  which  Oppas  had  heard,  which 
lay  in  the  Sea  of  Darkness.  Among  these 
islands  they  were  to  find  their  future  home. 

The  voyage,  at  first  rough,  soon  became 
serene  and  quiet ;  the  skies  were  clear,  the 
moon  shone ;  the  veils  of  the  Spanish  maidens 
were  convenient  by  day  and  useless  at  even 
ing,  and  Luis  had  many  a  low-voiced  talk  on 
the  quarter-deck  with  Juanita,  who  proved  to 
be  a  young  relative  of  the  archbishop.  It  was 
understood  that  she  was  to  take  the  veil,  and 
that,  young  as  she  was,  she  would  become,  by 
and  by,  the  lady  abbess  of  a  nunnery  to  be 
established  on  the  islands ;  and  as  her  kinsman, 
though  severe  to  others,  was  gentle  to  her, 
she  had  her  own  way  a  good  deal  —  especially 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     157 

beneath  the  moon  and  the  stars.  For  the  rest, 
they  had  daily  services  of  religion,  as  dignified 
and  sonorous  as  could  have  taken  place  on 
shore,  except  on  those  rare  occasions  when  the 
chief  bass  voice  was  hushed  in  seasickness  in 
some  cabin  below.  Beautiful  Gregorian  masses 
rose  to  heaven,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  Pil 
grim  fathers,  in  their  two  months  on  the 
Atlantic,  almost  a  thousand  years  later,  had  no 
such  rich  melody  as  floated  across  those  sum 
mer  seas.  Luis  was  a  favorite  of  Oppas,  the 
archbishop,  who  never  seemed  to  recognize 
any  danger  in  having  an  enamoured  youth  so 
near  to  the  demure  future  abbess.  He  con 
sulted  the  youth  about  many  plans.  Their 
aim,  it  seemed,  was  the  great  island  called 
Antillia,  as  yet  unexplored,  but  reputed  to  be 
large  enough  for  many  thousand  people.  Oppas 
was  to  organize  the  chief  settlement,  and  he 
planned  to  divide  the  island  into  seven  dio 
ceses,  each  bishop  having  a  permanent  colony. 
Once  established,  they  would  trade  with  Spain, 
and  whether  it  remained  Moorish  or  became 
Christian,  Oppas  was  sure  of  friendly  relations. 


158     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

The  priests  were  divided  among  the  three 
vessels,  and  among  them  there  was  that  occa 
sional  jarring  from  which  even  holy  men  are 
not  quite  free.  The  different  bishops  had  their 
partisans,  but  none  dared  openly  face  the  im 
perial  Oppas.  His  supposed  favorite  Luis  was 
less  formidable ;  he  was  watched  and  spied 
upon,  while  his  devotion  to  the  dignified 
Juanita  was  apparent  to  all.  Yet  he  was  always 
ready  to  leave  her  side  when  Oppas  called,  and 
then  they  discussed  together  the  future  pros 
pects  of  the  party :  when  they  should  see  land, 
whether  it  would  really  be  Antillia,  whether 
they  should  have  a  good  landfall,  whether  the 
island  would  be  fertile,  whether  there  would  be 
native  inhabitants,  and  if  so,  whether  they 
should  be  baptized  and  sent  to  Spain  as  slaves, 
or  whether  they  should  be  retained  on  the 
island.  It  was  decided,  on  the  whole,  that  this 
last  should  be  done;  and  what  with  the  pros 
pect  of  winning  souls,  and  the  certainty  of  hav 
ing  obedient  subjects,  the  prospect  seemed 
inviting. 

One    morning,    at    sunrise,    there    lay    before 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     159 

them  a  tropic  island,  soft  and  graceful,  with 
green  shrubs  and  cocoanut  trees,  and  rising  in 
the  distance  to  mountains  whose  scooped  tops 
and  dark,  furrowed  sides  spoke  of  extinct  vol 
canoes  —  yet  not  so  extinct  but  that  a  faint 
wreath  of  vapor  still  mounted  from  the  utmost 
peak  of  the  highest  among  them.  Here  and 
there  were  seen  huts  covered  with  great  leaves 
or  sheaves  of  grass,  and  among  these  they  saw 
figures  moving  and  disappearing,  watching  their 
approach,  yet  always  ready  to  disappear  in  the 
recesses  of  the  woods.  Sounding  carefully  the 
depth  of  water  with  their  imperfect  tackle,  they 
anchored  off  the  main  beach,  and  sent  a  boat 
on  shore  from  each  vessel,  Luis  being  in  com 
mand  of  one.  The  natives  at  first  hovered  in 
the  distance,  but  presently  came  down  to  the 
shore  to  meet  the  visitors,  some  even  swimming 
off  to  the  boats  in  advance.  They  were  of  a 
yellow  complexion,  with  good  features,  were 
naked  except  for  goat-skins  or  woven  palm  fibres, 
or  reeds  painted  in  different  colors  ;  and  were 
gay  and  merry,  singing  and  dancing  among 
themselves.  When  brought  on  board  the 


160     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

ships,  they  ate  bread  and  figs,  but  refused  wine 
and  spices ;  and  they  seemed  not  to  know 
the  use  of  rings  or  of  swords,  when  shown  to 
them.  Whatever  was  given  to  them  they 
divided  with  one  another.  They  cultivated 
fruit  and  grain  on  their  island,  reared  goats, 
and  seemed  willing  to  share  all  with  their 
newly  found  friends.  Luis,  always  thought 
ful,  and  somewhat  anxious  in  temperament, 
felt  many  doubts  as  to  the  usage  which 
these  peaceful  islanders  would  receive  from  the 
ships'  company,  no  matter  how  many  bishops 
and  holy  men  might  be  on  board. 

All  that  day  there  was  exploring  by  small 
companies,  and  on  the  next  the  archbishop 
landed  in  solemn  procession.  The  boats  from 
the  ships  all  met  at  early  morning,  near  the 
shore,  the  sight  bringing  together  a  crowd  of 
islanders  on  the  banks;  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,  who,  with  an  instinct  that  something 
of  importance  was  to  happen,  decked  them 
selves  with  flowers,  wreaths,  and  plumes,  the 
number  increasing  constantly  and  the  crowd 
growing  more  and  more  picturesque.  Forming 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     161 

from  the  boats,  a  procession  marched  slowly  up 
the  beach,  beginning  with  a  few  lay  brethren, 
carrying  tools  for  digging ;  then  acolytes  bearing 
tall  crosses ;  and  then  white-robed  priests ; 
the  seven  bishops  being  carried  on  litters,  the 
archbishop  most  conspicuously  of  all.  Solemn 
chants  were  sung  as  the  procession  moved 
through  the  calm  water  towards  the  placid  shore, 
and  the  gentle  savages  joined  in  kneeling  while 
a  solemn  mass  was  said,  and  the  crosses  were 
uplifted  which  took  possession  of  the  new 
found  land  in  the  name  of  the  Church. 

These  solemn  services  occupied  much  of  the 
day  ;  later  they  carried  tents  on  shore,  and  some 
of  them  occupied  large  storehouses  which  the 
natives  had  built  for  drying  their  figs  ;  and  to 
the  women,  under  direction  of  Juanita,  was 
allotted  a  great  airy  cave,  with  smaller  caves 
branching  from  it,  where  the  natives  had  made 
palm  baskets.  Day  after  day  they  labored, 
transferring  all  their  goods  and  provisions  to 
the  land,  —  tools,  and  horses,  and  mules,  clothing, 
and  simple  furniture.  Most  of  them  joined  with 
pleasure  in  this  toil,  but  others  grew  restless 


1 62     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

as  they  transferred  all  their  possessions  to  land, 
and  sometimes  the  women  especially  would  climb 
to  high  places  and  gaze  longingly  towards  Spain. 

One  morning  a  surprise  came  to  Luis.  Every 
night  it  was  their  custom  to  have  a  great  fire 
on  the  beach,  and  to  meet  and  sing  chants 
around  it.  One  night  Luis  had  personally  put 
out  the  blaze  of  the  fire,  as  it  was  more  windy 
than  usual,  and  went  to  sleep  in  his  tent.  Soon 
after  midnight  he  was  awakened  by  a  glare  of 
a  great  light  upon  his  tent's  thin  walls,  and 
hastily  springing  up,  he  saw  their  largest  cara 
vel  on  fire.  Rushing  out  to  give  the  alarm, 
he  saw  a  similar  flame  kindled  in  the  second 
vessel,  and  then,  after  some  delay,  in  the  third. 
Then  he  saw  a  dark  boat  pulling  hastily  towards 
the  shore,  and  going  down  to  the  beach  he 
met  their  most  trusty  captain,  who  told  him 
that  the  ships  had  been  burnt  by  order  of  the 
archbishop,  in  order  that  their  return  might 
be  hopeless,  and  that  their  stay  on  the  island 
might  be  forever. 

There  was  some  lamentation  among  the  emi 
grants  when  they  saw  their  retreat  thus  cut  off, 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     163 

but  Luis  when  once  established  on  shore  did  not 
share  it ;  to  be  near  Juanita  was  enough  for  him, 
though  he  rarely  saw  her.  He  began  sometimes 
to  feel  that  the  full  confidence  of  the  archbishop 
was  withdrawn  from  him,  but  he  was  still  high 
in  office,  and  he  rode  with  Oppas  over  the  great 
island,  marking  it  out  by  slow  degrees  into  seven 
divisions,  that  each  bishop  might  have  a  diocese 
and  a  city  of  his  own.  Soon  the  foundations 
began  to  be  laid,  and  houses  and  churches  began 
to  be  built,  for  the  soft  volcanic  rock  was  easily 
worked,  though  not  very  solid  for  building.  The 
spot  for  the  cathedral  was  selected  with  the  un 
erring  eye  for  a  fine  situation  which  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  has  always  shown,  and  the  ad 
joining  convent  claimed,  as  it  rose,  the  care  of 
Juanita.  As  general  superintendent  of  the  works, 
it  was  the  duty  of  Luis  sometimes  to  be  in  that 
neighborhood,  until  one  unlucky  day  when  the 
two  lovers,  lingering  to  watch  the  full  moon  rise, 
were  interrupted  by  one  of  the  younger  bishops, 
a  black-browed  Spaniard  of  stealthy  ways,  who 
had  before  now  taken  it  upon  himself  to  watch 
them.  Nothing  could  be  more  innocent  than 


164     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

their  dawning  loves,  yet  how  could  any  love  be 
held  innocent  on  the  part  of  a  maiden  who  was 
the  kinswoman  of  an  archbishop  and  was  his  des 
tined  choice  for  the  duties  of  an  abbess?  The 
fact  that  she  had  never  yet  taken  her  prelimi 
nary  vows  or  given  her  consent  to  take  them, 
counted  for  nothing  in  the  situation ;  though  any 
experienced  lady-superior  could  have  told  the 
archbishop  that  no  maiden  could  be  wisely  made 
an  abbess  until  she  had  given  some  signs  of  hav 
ing  a  vocation  for  a  religious  life. 

From  that  moment  the  youthful  pair  met 
no  more  for  weeks.  It  seemed  always  necessary 
for  Luis  to  be  occupied  elsewhere  than  in  the 
Cathedral  city ;  as  the  best  architect  on  the 
island,  he  was  sent  here,  there,  and  everywhere; 
and  the  six  other  churches  rose  with  more 
rapidity  because  the  archbishop  preferred  to 
look  after  his  own.  The  once  peaceful  natives 
found  themselves  a  shade  less  happy  when  they 
were  required  to  work  all  day  long  as  quarry- 
men  or  as  builders,  but  it  was  something,  had 
they  but  known  it,  that  they  were  not  borne  away 
as  slaves,  as  happened  later  on  other  islands  to  so 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     165 

many  of  their  race.  To  Luis  they  were  always 
loyal  for  his  cheery  ways,  although  there  seemed 
a  change  in  his  spirits  as  time  went  on.  But  an 
event  happened  which  brought  a  greater  change 
still. 

A  Spanish  caravel  was  seen  one  day,  making 
towards  the  port  and  showing  signals  of  distress. 
Luis,  having  just  then  found  an  excuse  for 
visiting  the  Cathedral  city,  was  the  first  to 
board  her  and  was  hailed  with  joy  by  the  cap 
tain.  He  was  a  townsman  of  the  youth's  and 
had  given  him  his  first  lessons  in  navigation. 
He  had  been  bound,  it  seemed,  for  the  Canary 
Islands,  and  had  put  in  for  repairs,  which 
needed  only  a  few  days  in  the  quiet  waters  of 
a  sheltered  port.  He  could  tell  Luis  of  his 
parents,  of  his  home,  and  that  the  northern 
part  of  Spain,  under  Arab  sway,  was  humanely 
governed,  and  a  certain  proportion  of  Christian 
churches  allowed.  In  a  few  days  the  caravel 
sailed  again  at  nightfall ;  but  it  carried  with 
it  two  unexpected  passengers ;  the  archbishop 
lost  his  architect,  and  the  proposed  convent  lost 
its  unwilling  abbess. 


1 66     Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities 

From  this  point  both  the  Island  of  the 
Seven  Cities  and  its  escaping  lovers  disappear 
from  all  definite  records.  It  was  a  period  when 
expeditions  of  discovery  came  and  went,  and 
when  one  wondrous  tale  drove  out  another. 
There  exist  legends  along  the  northern  coast 
of  Spain  in  the  region  of  Santander,  for  instance, 
of  a  youth  who  once  eloped  with  a  high-born 
maiden  and  came  there  to  dwell,  but  there 
may  have  been  many  such  youths  and  many  such 
maidens  —  who  knows  ?  Of  Antillia  itself,  or 
the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities,  it  is  well  known 
that  it  appeared  on  the  maps  of  the  Atlantic, 
sometimes  under  the  one  name  and  sometimes 
under  another,  six  hundred  years  after  the  date 
assigned  by  the  story  that  has  here  been  told. 
It  was  said  by  Fernando  Columbus  to  have 
been  revisited  by  a  Portuguese  sailor  in  1447  ; 
and  the  name  appeared  on  the  globe  of  Behaim 
in  1492. 

The  geographer  Toscanelli,  in  his  famous 
letter  to  Columbus,  recommended  Antillia  as 
likely  to  be  useful  to  Columbus  as  a  way 
station  for  reaching  India,  and  when  the  great 


Antillia,  the  Island  of  the  Seven  Cities     167 

explorer  reached  Hispaniola,  he  was  supposed 
to  have  discovered  the  mysterious  island,  whence 
the  name  of  Antilles  was  given  to  the  group. 
Later,  the  first  explorers  of  New  Mexico 
thought  that  the  pueblos  were  the  Seven  Cities; 
so  that  both  the  names  of  the  imaginary  island 
have  been  preserved,  although  those  of  Luis  de 
Vega  and  his  faithful  Juanita  have  not  been 
recorded  until  the  telling  of  this  tale. 


XVI 
HARALD   THE   VIKING 

ERIK  THE  RED,  the  most  famous  of  all 
Vikings,  had  three  sons,  and  once  when 
they  were  children  the  king  came  to  visit 
Erik  and  passed  through  the  playground  where 
the  boys  were  playing.  Leif  and  Biorn,  the  two 
oldest,  were  building  little  houses  and  barns  and 
were  making  believe  that  they  were  full  of  cattle 
and  sheep,  while  Harald,  who  was  only  four 
years  old,  was  sailing  chips  of  wood  in  a  pool. 
The  king  asked  Harald  what  they  were,  and  he 
said,  "  Ships  of  war."  King  Olaf  laughed  and 
said,  "  The  time  may  come  when  you  will  com 
mand  ships,  my  little  friend."  Then  he  asked 
Biorn  what  he  would  like  best  to  have.  "  Corn- 
land,"  he  said;  "ten  farms."  "That  would 
yield  much  corn,"  the  king  replied.  Then  he 
asked  Leif  the  same  question,  and  he  answered, 
"  Cows."  "  How  many  ?  "  "  So  many  that 

168 


Harald  the  Viking  169 

when  they  went  to  the  lake  to  be  watered,  they 
would  stand  close  round  the  edge,  so  that  not 
another  could  pass."  "  That  would  be  a  large 
housekeeping,"  said  the  king,  and  he  asked  the 
same  question  of  Harald.  "  What  would  you 
like  best  to  have  ?  "  "  Servants  and  followers," 
said  the  child,  stoutly.  "  How  many  would  you 
like  ?  "  "  Enough,"  said  the  child,  "  to  eat  up 
all  the  cows  and  crops  of  my  brothers  at  a  single 
meal."  Then  the  king  laughed,  and  said  to  the 
mother  of  the  children,  "  You  are  bringing  up  a 
king." 

As  the  boys  grew,  Leif  and  Harald  were  ever 
fond  of  roaming,  while  Biorn  wished  to  live  on 
the  farm  at  peace.  Their  sister  Freydis  went 
with  the  older  boys  and  urged  them  on.  She 
was  not  gentle  and  amiable,  but  full  of  energy 
and  courage  :  she  was  also  quarrelsome  and  vin 
dictive.  People  said  of  her  that  even  if  her 
brothers  were  all  killed,  yet  the  race  of  Erik  the 
Red  would  not  end  while  she  lived  ;  that  "  she 
practised  more  of  shooting  and  the  handling  of 
sword  and  shield  than  of  sewing  or  embroidering, 
and  that  as  she  was  able,  she  did  evil  oftener 


1 70  Harald  the  Viking 

than  good ;  and  that  when  she  was  hindered  she 
ran  into  the  woods  and  slew  men  to  get  their 
property."  She  was  always  urging  her  brothers 
to  deeds  of  daring  and  adventure.  One  day 
they  had  been  hawking,  and  when  they  let  slip 
the  falcons,  Harald's  falcon  killed  two  blackcocks 
in  one  flight  and  three  in  another.  The  dogs 
ran  and  brought  the  birds,  and  he  said  proudly 
to  the  others,  "  It  will  be  long  before  most  of 
you  have  any  such  success,"  and  they  all  agreed 
to  this.  He  rode  home  in  high  spirits  and 
showed  his  birds  to  his  sister  Freydis.  "  Did 
any  king,"  he  asked,  "  ever  make  so  great  a 
capture  in  so  short  a  time  ?"  "Itis,  indeed,"  she 
said,  "a  good  morning's  hunting  to  have  got 
five  blackcocks,  but  it  was  still  better  when  in 
one  morning  a  king  of  Norway  took  five  kings 
and  subdued  all  their  kingdoms."  Then  Harald 
went  away  very  humble  and  besought  his  father 
to  let  him  go  and  serve  on  the  Varangian  Guard 
of  King  Otho  at  Constantinople,  that  he  might 
learn  to  be  a  warrior. 

So    Harald  was  brought  from  his  Norwegian 
home  by  his  father  Erik  the  Red,  in  his  galley 


Harald  the  Viking  171 

called  the  Sea-serpent,  and  sailed  with  him 
through  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  was  at  last 
made  a  member  of  the  Emperor  Otho's  Varan 
gian  Guard  at  Constantinople.  This  guard  will 
be  well  remembered  by  the  readers  of  Scott's 
novel,  "  Count  Robert  of  Paris,"  and  was  main 
tained  by  successive  emperors  and  drawn  largely 
from  the  Scandinavian  races.  Erik  the  Red  had 
no  hesitation  in  leaving  his  son  among  them,  as 
the  young  man  was  stout  and  strong,  very  self- 
willed,  and  quite  able  to  defend  himself.  The 
father  knew  also  that  the  Varangian  Guard, 
though  hated  by  the  people,  held  to  one  another 
like  a  band  of  brothers ;  and  that  any  one 
brought  up  among  them  would  be  sure  of  plenty 
of  fighting  and  plenty  of  gold, —  the  two  things 
most  prized  by  early  Norsemen.  For  ordinary 
life,  Harald's  chief  duties  would  be  to  lounge 
about  the  palace,  keeping  guard,  wearing  helmet 
and  buckler  and  bearskin,  with  purple  under 
clothes  and  golden  clasped  hose  ;  and  bearing  as 
armor  a  mighty  battle-axe  and  a  small  scimitar. 
Such  was  the  life  led  by  Harald,  till  one  day  he 
had  a  message  from  his  father,  through  a  new 


172  Harald  the  Viking 

recruit,  calling  him  home  to  join  an  expedition 
to  the  western  seas.  "  I  hear,  my  son,"  the 
message  said,  "  that  your  good  emperor,  whom 
may  the  gods  preserve,  is  sorely  ill  and  may  die 
any  day.  When  he  is  dead,  be  prompt  in 
getting  your  share  of  the  plunder  of  the  palace 
and  come  back  to  me." 

The  emperor  died,  and  the  order  was  fulfilled. 
It  was  the  custom  of  the  Varangians  to  reward 
themselves  in  this  way  for  their  faithful  services 
of  protection  ;  and  the  result  is  that,  to  this  day, 
Greek  and  Arabic  gold  crosses  and  chains  are  to 
be  found  in  the  houses  of  Norwegian  peasants 
and  may  be  seen  in  the  museums  of  Christiania 
and  Copenhagen.  No  one  was  esteemed  the 
less  for  this  love  of  spoil,  if  he  was  only  generous 
in  giving.  The  Norsemen  spoke  contempt 
uously  of  gold  as  "the  serpent's  bed,"  and 
called  a  generous  man  "  a  hater  of  the  serpent's 
bed,"  because  such  a  man  parts  with  gold  as  with 
a  thing  he  hates. 

When  the  youth  came  to  his  father,  he  found 
Erik  the  Red  directing  the  building  of  one  of 
the  great  Norse  galleys,  nearly  eighty  feet  long 


Harald  the  Viking  173 

and  seventeen  wide  and  only  six  feet  deep.  The 
boat  had  twenty  ribs,  and  the  frame  was  fastened 
together  by  withes  made  of  roots,  while  the 
oaken  planks  were  held  by  iron  rivets.  The 
oars  were  twenty  feet  long,  and  were  put  through 
oar  holes,  and  the  rudder,  shaped  like  a  large  oar, 
was  not  at  the  end,  but  was  attached  to  a  project 
ing  beam  on  the  starboard  (originally  steer-board) 
side.  The  ship  was  to  be  called  a  Dragon,  and 
was  to  be  painted  so  as  to  look  like  one,  having 
a  gilded  dragon's  head  at  the  bow  and  a  gilded 
tail  on  the  stern  ;  while  the  moving  oars  would 
look  like  legs,  and  the  row  of  red  and  white 
shields,  hung  along  the  side  of  the  boat,  would 
resemble  the  scales  of  a  dragon,  and  the  great 
square  sails,  red  and  blue,  would  look  like  wings. 
This  was  the  vessel  which  young  Harald  was  to 
command. 

He  had  already  made  trips  in  just  such  vessels 
with  his  father ;  had  learned  to  attack  the  enemy 
with  arrow  and  spear  ;  also  with  stones  thrown 
down  from  above,  and  with  grappling-irons  to 
clutch  opposing  boats.  He  had  learned  to  swim, 
from  early  childhood,  even  in  the  icy  northern 


174  Harald  the  Viking 

waters,  and  he  had  been  trained  in  swimming  to 
hide  his  head  beneath  his  floating  shield,  so 
that  it  could  not  be  seen.  He  had  learned  also 
to  carry  tinder  in  a  walnut  shell,  enclosed  in  wax, 
so  that  no  matter  how  long  he  had  been  in  the 
water  he  could  strike  a  light  on  reaching  shore. 
He  had  also  learned  from  his  father  acts  of  escape 
as  well  as  attack.  Thus  he  had  once  sailed  on  a 
return  trip  from  Denmark  after  plundering  a 
town  ;  the  ships  had  been  lying  at  anchor  all 
night  in  a  fog,  and  at  sunlight  in  the  morning 
lights  seemed  burning  on  the  sea.  But  Erik 
the  Red  said,  "  It  is  a  fleet  of  Danish  ships,  and 
the  sun  strikes  on  the  gilded  dragon  crests;  furl 
the  sail  and  take  to  the  oars."  They  rowed 
their  best,  yet  the  Danish  ships  were  overtaking 
them,  when  Erik  the  Red  ordered  his  men  to 
throw  wood  overboard  and  cover  it  with  Danish 
plunder.  This  made  some  delay,  as  the  Danes 
stopped  to  pick  it  up,  and  in  the  same  way  Erik 
the  Red  dropped  his  provisions,  and  finally  his 
prisoners ;  and  in  the  delay  thus  caused  he  got 
away  with  his  own  men. 

But  now  Harald  was  not  to  go  to  Denmark, 


Harald  the  Viking  175 

but  to  the  new  western  world,  the  Wonder- 
strands  which  Leif  had  sought  and  had  left 
without  sufficient  exploration.  First,  however, 
he  was  to  call  at  Greenland,  which  his  father 
had  first  discovered.  It  was  the  custom  of  the 
Viking  explorers,  when  they  reached  a  new  coun 
try,  to  throw  overboard  their  "  seat  posts,"  or 
setstokka,  —  the  curved  part  of  their  doorways,  — 
and  then  to  land  where  they  floated  ashore.  But 
Erik  the  Red  had  lent  his  to  a  friend  and  could 
not  get  them  back,  so  that  he  sailed  in  search  of 
them,  and  came  to  a  new  land  which  he  called 
Greenland,  because,  as  he  said,  people  would  be 
attracted  thither  if  it  had  a  good  name.  Then 
he  established  a  colony  there,  and  then  Leif  the 
Lucky,  as  he  was  called,  sailed  still  farther,  and 
came  to  the  Wonderstrand,  or  Magic  Shores. 
These  he  called  Vinland  or  Wine-land,  and  now  a 
rich  man  named  Karlsefne  was  to  send  a  colony 
thither  from  Greenland,  and  the  young  Harald 
was  to  go  with  it  and  take  command  of  it. 

Now  as  Harald  was  to  be  presented  to  the 
rich  Karlsefne,  he  thought  he  must  be  gorgeously 
arrayed.  So  he  wore  a  helmet  on  his  head,  a  red 


176  Harald  the  Viking 

shield  richly  inlaid  with  gold  and  iron,  and  a 
sharp  sword  with  an  ivory  handle  wound  with 
golden  thread.  He  had  also  a  short  spear,  and 
wore  over  his  coat  a  red  silk  short  cloak  on  which 
was  embroidered,  both  before  and  behind,  a  yel 
low  lion.  We  may  well  believe  that  the  sixty 
men  and  five  women  who  composed  the  expe 
dition  were  ready  to  look  on  him  with  admira 
tion,  especially  as  one  of  the  women  was  his  own 
sister,  Freydis,  now  left  to  his  peculiar  care,  since 
Erik  the  Red  had  died.  The  sturdy  old  hero 
had  died  still  a  heathen,  and  it  was  only  just 
after  his  death  that  Christianity  was  introduced 
into  Greenland,  and  those  numerous  churches 
were  built  there  whose  ruins  yet  remain,  even  in 
regions  from  which  all  population  has  gone. 

So  the  party  of  colonists  sailed  for  Vinland, 
and  Freydis,  with  the  four  older  women,  came  in 
Harald's  boat,  and  Freydis  took  easily  the  lead 
among  them  for  strength,  though  not  always,  it 
must  be  admitted,  for  amiability. 

The  boats  of  the  expedition  having  left  Green 
land  soon  after  the  year  1000,  coasted  the  shore 
as  far  as  they  could,  rarely  venturing  into  open 


Harald  the  Viking  177 

sea.  At  last,  amidst  fog  and  chilly  weather, 
they  made  land  at  a  point  where  a  river  ran 
through  a  lake  into  the  sea,  and  they  could 
not  enter  from  the  sea  except  at  high  tide. 
It  was  once  believed  that  this  was  Narragansett 
Bay  in  Rhode  Island,  but  this  is  no  longer 
believed.  Here  they  landed  and  called  the 
place  Hop,  from  the  Icelandic  word  hopa,  mean 
ing  an  inlet  from  the  ocean.  Here  they  found 
grape-vines  growing  and  fields  of  wild  wheat ; 
there  were  fish  in  the  lake  and  wild  animals 
in  the  woods.  Here  they  landed  the  cattle 
and  the  provisions  which  they  had  brought 
with  them ;  and  here  they  built  their  huts. 
They  went  in  the  spring,  and  during  that 
summer  the  natives  came  in  boats  of  skin  to 
trade  with  them  —  men  described  as  black,  and 
ill  favored,  with  large  eyes  and  broad  cheeks 
and  with  coarse  hair  on  their  heads.  These, 
it  is  thought,  may  have  been  the  Esquimaux. 
The  first  time  they  came,  these  visitors  held 
up  a  white  shield  as  a  sign  of  peace,  and  were 
so  frightened  by  the  bellowing  of  the  bull  that 
they  ran  away.  Then  returning,  they  brought 


iy8  Harald  the  Viking 

furs  to  sell  and  wished  to  buy  weapons,  but 
Harald  tried  another  plan :  he  bade  the  women 
bring  out  milk,  butter,  and  cheese  from  their 
dairies,  and  when  the  Skraelings  saw  that,  they 
wished  for  nothing  else,  and,  the  legend  says, 
"  the  Skraelings  carried  away  their  wares  in 
their  stomachs,  but  the  Norsemen  had  the 
skins  they  had  purchased."  This  happened  yet 
again,  but  at  the  second  visit  one  of  the  Skrael 
ings  was  accidentally  killed  or  injured. 

The  next  time  the  Skraelings  came  they  were 
armed  with  slings,  and  raised  upon  a  pole  a 
great  blue  ball  and  attacked  the  Norsemen  so 
furiously  that  they  were  running  away  when 
Erik's  sister,  Freydis,  came  out  before  them 
with  bare  arms,  and  took  up  a  sword,  saying, 
"Why  do  you  run,  strong  men  as  you  are, 
from  these  miserable  dwarfs  whom  I  thought 
you  would  knock  down  like  cattle  ?  Give  me 
weapons,  and  I  will  fight  better  than  any  of 
you."  Then  the  rest  took  courage  and  began 
to  fight,  and  the  Skraelings  were  driven  back. 
Once  more  the  strangers  came,  and  one  of 
them  took  up  an  axe,  a  thing  which  he  had 


Harald  the  Viking  179 

not  before  seen,  and  struck  at  one  of  his  com 
panions,  killing  him.  Then  the  leader  took 
the  axe  and  threw  it  into  the  water,  after 
which  the  Skraelings  retreated,  and  were  not 
seen  again. 

The  winter  was  a  mild  one,  and  while  it 
lasted,  the  Norsemen  worked  busily  at  felling 
wood  and  house-building.  They  had  also  many 
amusements,  in  most  of  which  Harald  excelled. 
They  used  to  swim  in  all  weathers.  One  of 
their  feats  was  to  catch  seals  and  sit  on  them 
while  swimming ;  another  was  to  pull  one  an 
other  down  and  remain  as  long  as  possible 
under  water.  Harald  could  swim  for  a  mile 
or  more  with  his  armor  on,  or  with  a  com 
panion  on  his  shoulder.  In-doors  they  used 
to  play  the  tug  of  war,  dragging  each  other  by 
a  walrus  hide  across  the  fire.  Harald  was  good 
at  this,  and  was  also  the  best  archer,  some 
times  aiming  at  something  placed  on  a  boy's 
head,  the  boy  having  a  cloth  tied  around  his 
head,  and  held  by  two  men,  that  he  might  not 
move  at  all  on  hearing  the  whistling  of  the 
arrow.  In  this  way  Harald  could  even  shoot  an 


i8o  Harald  the  Viking 

arrow  under  a  nut  placed  on  the  head,  so 
that  the  nut  would  roll  down  and  the  head  not 
be  hurt.  He  could  plant  a  spear  in  the 
ground  and  then  shoot  an  arrow  upward  so 
skilfully  that  it  would  turn  in  the  air  and 
fall  with  the  point  in  the  end  of  the  spear- 
shaft.  He  could  also  shoot  a  blunt  arrow 
through  the  thickest  ox-hide  from  a  cross-bow. 
He  could  change  weapons  from  one  hand  to 
the  other  during  a  fencing  match,  or  fence  with 
either  hand,  or  throw  two  spears  at  the  same 
time,  or  catch  a  spear  in  motion.  He  could 
run  so  fast  that  no  horse  could  overtake  him, 
and  play  the  rough  games  with  bat  and  ball, 
using  a  ball  of  the  hardest  wood.  He  could 
race  on  snowshoes,  or  wrestle  when  bound  by 
a  belt  to  his  antagonist.  Then  when  he  and 
his  companions  wished  a  rest,  they  amused 
themselves  with  harp-playing  or  riddles  or  chess. 
The  Norsemen  even  played  chess  on  board 
their  vessels,  and  there  are  still  to  be  seen,  on 
some  of  these,  the  little  holes  that  were  for 
merly  used  for  the  sharp  ends  of  the  chessmen, 
so  that  they  should  not  be  displaced. 


Harald  the  Viking  181 

They  could  not  find  that  any  European  had 
ever  visited  this  place ;  but  some  of  the  Skrae- 
lings  told  them  of  a  place  farther  south,  which 
they  called  "  the  Land  of  the  Whiteman,"  or 
"  Great  Ireland."  They  said  that  in  that  place 
there  were  white  men  who  clothed  themselves  in 
long  white  garments,  carried  before  them  poles 
to  which  white  cloths  were  hung,  and  called  with 
a  loud  voice.  These,  it  was  thought  by  the 
Norsemen,  must  be  Christian  processions,  in 
which  banners  were  borne  and  hymns  were 
chanted.  It  has  been  thought  from  this  that  some 
expedition  from  Ireland — that  of  St.  Brandan, 
for  instance  —  may  have  left  a  settlement  there, 
long  before,  but  this  has  never  been  confirmed. 
The  Skraelings  and  the  Northmen  were  good 
friends  for  a  time  ;  until  at  last  one  of  Erik's  own 
warriors  killed  a  Skraeling  by  accident,  and  then 
all  harmony  was  at  an  end. 

They  saw  no  hope  of  making  a  lasting  settle 
ment  there,  and,  moreover,  Freydis  who  was  very 
grasping,  tried  to  deceive  the  other  settlers  and 
get  more  than  her  share  of  everything,  so  that 
Harald  himself  lost  patience  with  her  and  threat- 


1 82  Harald  the  Viking 

ened  her.  It  happened  that  one  of  the  men  of 
the  party,  Olaf,  was  Harald's  foster-brother. 
They  had  once  had  a  fight,  and  after  the  battle 
had  agreed  that  they  would  be  friends  for  life 
and  always  share  the  same  danger.  For  this  vow 
they  were  to  walk  under  the  turf;  that  is,  a  strip 
of  turf  was  cut  and  held  above  their  heads,  and 
they  stood  beneath  and  let  their  blood  flow  upon  ' 
the  ground  whence  the  turf  had  been  cut.  After 
this  they  were  to  own  everything  by  halves  and 
either  must  avenge  the  other's  death.  This  was 
their  brotherhood  ;  but  Freydis  did  not  like  it ;  so 
she  threatened  Olaf,  and  tried  to  induce  men  to 
kill  him,  for  she  did  not  wish  to  bring  upon  her 
self  the  revenge  that  must  come  if  she  slew  him. 

This  was  the  reason  why  the  whole  enterprise 
failed,  and  why  Olaf  persuaded  Harald,  for  the 
sake  of  peace,  to  return  to  Greenland  in  the 
spring  and  take  a  load  of  valuable  timber  to  sell 
there,  including  one  stick  of  what  was  called 
massur-wood,  which  was  as  valuable  as  ma 
hogany,  and  may  have  been  at  some  time  borne 
by  ocean  currents  to  the  beach.  It  is  hardly 
possible  that,  as  some  have  thought,  the  colo- 


Harald  the  Viking  183 

nists  established  a  regular  trade  in  this  wood  for 
no  such  wood  grows  on  the  northern  Atlantic 
shores.  However  this  may  be,  the  party  soon 
returned,  after  one  winter  in  Vinland  the  Good ; 
and  on  the  way  back  Harald  did  one  thing  which 
made  him  especially  dear  to  his  men. 

A  favorite  feat  of  the  Norsemen  was  to  toss 
three  swords  in  the  air  and  catch  each  by  the 
handle  as  it  came  down.  This  was  called  the 
handsax  game.  The  young  men  used  also  to  try 
the  feat  of  running  along  the  oar-blades  of  the 
rowers  as  they  were  in  motion,  passing  around 
the  bow  of  the  vessel  with  a  spring  and  coming 
round  to  the  stern  over  the  oars  on  the  other 
side.  Few  could  accomplish  this,  but  no  one  but 
Harald  could  do  it  and  play  the  handsax  game 
as  he  ran  ;  and  when  he  did  it,  they  all  said  that 
he  was  the  most  skilful  man  at  idrottie  ever  seen. 
That  was  their  word  for  an  athletic  feat.  But 
presently  came  a  time  when  not  only  his  courage 
but  his  fairness  and  justice  were  to  be  tried. 

It  happened  in  this  way.  There  was  nothing 
of  which  the  Norsemen  were  more  afraid  than  of 
the  teredo,  or  shipworm,  which  gnaws  the  wood 


184  Harald  the  Viking 

of  ships.  It  was  observed  in  Greenland  and  Ice 
land  that  pieces  of  wood  often  floated  on  shore 
which  were  filled  with  holes  made  by  this  animal, 
and  they  thought  that  in  certain  places  the  seas 
were  full  of  this  worm,  so  that  a  ship  would  be 
bored  and  sunk  in  a  little  while.  It  is  said  that 
on  this  return  voyage  Harald' s  vessel  entered  a 
worm-sea  and  presently  began  to  sink.  They 
had,  however,  provided  a  smaller  boat  smeared 
with  sea-oil,  which  the  worms  would  not  attack. 
They  went  into  the  boat,  but  found  that  it  would 
not  hold  more  than  half  of  them  all.  Then 
Harald  said,  "  We  will  divide  by  lots,  without 
regard  to  the  rank ;  each  taking  his  chance  with 
the  rest."  This  they  thought,  the  Norse  legend 
says,  "a  high-minded  offer."  They  drew  lots, 
and  Harald  was  among  those  assigned  to  the  safer 
boat.  He  stepped  in,  and  when  he  was  there  a 
man  called  from  the  other  boat  and  said,  "  Dost 
thou  intend,  Harald,  to  separate  from  me  here? " 
Harald  answered,  "  So  it  turns  out,"  and  the 
man  said,  "  Very  different  was  thy  promise  to  my 
father  when  we  came  from  Greenland,  for  the 
promise  was  that  we  should  share  the  same  fate." 


Harald  the  Viking  185 

Then  Harald  said,  "  It  shall  not  be  thus.  Go 
into  the  boat,  and  I  will  go  back  into  the  ship, 
since  thou  art  so  anxious  to  live."  Then  Harald 
went  back  to  the  ship,  while  the  man  took  his  place 
in  the  boat,  and  after  that  Harald  was  never  heard 
of  more. 


XVII 

THE   SEARCH   FOR  NORUMBEGA 

SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT,  colonel  of 
the  British  forces  in  the  Netherlands,  was 
poring  over  the  manuscript  narrative  of 
David  Ingram,  mariner.  Ingram  had  in  1568-69 
taken  the  widest  range  of  travel  that  had  ever 
been  taken  in  the  new  continent,  of  which  it  was 
still  held  doubtful  by  many  whether  it  was  or  was 
not  a  part  of  Asia.  "  Surely,"  Gilbert  said  to 
his  half-brother,  Walter  Raleigh,  a  youth  of 
twenty-three,  "  this  knave  hath  seen  strange 
things.  He  hath  been  set  ashore  by  John 
Hawkins  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  there  left 
behind.  He  hath  travelled  northward  with  two 
of  his  companions  along  Indian  trails ;  he  hath 
even  reached  Norumbega;  he  hath  seen  that 
famous  city  with  its  houses  of  crystal  and  silver." 
"  Pine  logs  and  hemlock  bark,  belike,"  said 
Raleigh,  scornfully. 

186 


The  Search  for  Norumbega  187 

"  Nay,"  said  Gilbert,  "he  hath  carefully  written 
it  down.  He  saw  kings  decorated  with  rubies 
six  inches  long ;  and  they  were  borne  on  chairs 
of  silver  and  crystal,  adorned  with  precious  stones. 
He  saw  pearls  as  common  as  pebbles,  and  the 
natives  were  laden  down  by  their  ornaments  of 
gold  and  silver.  The  city  of  Bega  was  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  long  and  had  many  streets 
wider  than  those  of  London.  Some  houses  had 
massive  pillars  of  crystal  and  silver." 

"  What  assurance  can  he  give  ? "  asked  Ra 
leigh. 

"  He  offers  on  his  life  to  prove  it." 

"  A  small  offer,  mayhap.  There  be  many  of 
these  lying  mariners  whose  lives  are  as  worthless 
as  the  stories  they  relate.  But  what  said  he  of 
the  natives  ?  " 

"  Kindly  disposed,"  was  the  reply,  "  so  far  as 
he  went,  but  those  dwelling  farther  north,  where 
he  did  not  go,  were  said  to  be  cannibals  with  teeth 
like  those  of  dogs,  whereby  you  may  know  them." 

"  Travellers'  tales,"  said  Raleigh.  "  Omne  ig- 
notum  pro  mirifico." 

"  He  returned,"  said  Gilbert,  disregarding  the 


1 88  The  Search  for  Norumbega 

interruption,  "  in  the  Gargarine,  a  French  vessel 
commanded  by  Captain  Champagne." 

"  Methinks  something  of  the  flavor  represented 
by  the  good  captain's  name  hath  got  into  your 
Englishman's  brain.  Good  ale  never  gives  such 
fantasies.  Doth  he  perchance  speak  of  ele 
phants  ?  " 

"  He  doth,"  said  Sir  Humphrey,  hesitatingly. 
"  Perchance  he  saw  them  not,  but  heard  of  them 
only." 

"  What  says  he  of  them  ? "  asked  Raleigh. 

"  He  says  that  he  saw  in  that  country 
both  elephants  and  ounces ;  and  he  says 
that  their  trumpets  are  made  of  elephants' 
teeth." 

"  But  the  houses,"  said  Raleigh ;  "  tell  me  of 
the  houses." 

"  In  every  house,"  said  Gilbert,  reading  from 
the  manuscript,  "  they  have  scoops,  buckets,  and 
divers  vessels,  all  of  massive  silver  with  which 
they  throw  out  water  and  otherwise  employ  them. 
The  women  wear  great  plates  of  gold  covering 
their  bodies,  and  chains  of  great  pearls  in  the 
manner  of  curvettes;  and  the  men  wear  manilions 


The  Search  for  Norumbega  189 

or  bracelets  on  each  arm  and  each  leg,  some  of 
gold  and  some  of  silver." 

"  Whence  come  they,  these  gauds  ?  " 
"  There  are  great  rivers  where  one  may  find 
pieces  of  gold  as  big  as  the  fist ;  and  there  are 
great   rocks    of  crystal,  sufficient  to  load   many 
ships." 

This  was  all  which  was  said  on  that  day,  but 
never  was  explorer  more  eager  than  Gilbert.  He 
wrote  a  "  Discourse  of  a  Discoverie  for  a  New 
Passage  to  Cathaia  and  the  East  Indies"  — pub 
lished  without  his  knowledge  by  George  Gas- 
coigne.  In  1578  he  had  from  Queen  Elizabeth 
a  patent  of  exploration,  allowing  him  to  take 
possession  of  any  uncolonized  lands  in  North 
America,  paying  for  these  a  fifth  of  all  gold  and 
silver  found.  The  next  year  he  sailed  with  Ra 
leigh  for  Newfoundland,  but  one  vessel  was  lost 
and  the  others  returned  to  England.  In  1583, 
he  sailed  again,  taking  with  him  the  narrative  of 
Ingram,  which  he  reprinted.  He  also  took  with 
him  a  learned  Hungarian  from  Buda,  named 
Parmenius,  who  went  for  the  express  purpose  of 
singing  the  praise  of  Norumbega  in  Latin  verse, 


190  The  Search  for  Norumbega 

but  was  drowned  in  Sir  Humphrey's  great  flag 
ship,  the  Delight.  This  wreck  took  place  near 
Sable  Island,  and  as  most  of  the  supplies  for  the 
expedition  went  down  in  the  flag-ship,  the  men  in 
the  remaining  vessels  grew  so  impatient  as  to 
compel  a  return.  There  were  two  vessels,  the 
Golden  Hind  of  forty  tons,  and  the  Squirrel  of  ten 
tons,  this  last  being  a  mere  boat  then  called  a 
frigate,  a  small  vessel  propelled  by  both  sails  and 
oars,  quite  unlike  the  war-ship  afterwards  called 
by  that  name.  On  both  these  vessels  the  men 
were  so  distressed  that  they  gathered  on  the 
bulwarks,  pointing  to  their  empty  mouths  and 
their  ragged  clothing.  The  officers  of  the  Golden 
Hind  were  unwilling  to  return,  but  consented  on 
Sir  Humphrey's  promise  that  they  should  come 
back  in  the  spring;  they  sailed  for  England  on  the 
3  ist  of  August.  All  wished  him  to  return  in  the 
Golden  Hind  as  a  much  larger  and  safer  vessel ; 
the  Squirrel,  besides  its  smallness,  being  encum 
bered  on  the  deck  with  guns,  ammunition,  and 
nettings,  making  it  unseaworthy.  But  when  he 
was  begged  to  remove  into  the  larger  vessel,  he 
said,  "  I  will  not  forsake  my  little  company  going 


The  Search  for  Norumbega  191 

homeward  with  whom  I  have  passed  so  many 
storms  and  perils."  One  reason  for  this  was,  the 
narrator  of  the  voyage  says,  because  of  "  hard  re 
ports  given  of  him  that  he  was  afraid  of  the  sea, 
albeit  this  was  rather  rashness  than  advised  res 
olution,  to  prefer  the  wind  of  a  vain  report  to 
the  weight  of  his  own  life." 

On  the  very  day  of  sailing  they  caught  their 
first  glimpse  of  some  large  species  of  seal  or 
walrus,  which  is  thus  described  by  the  old  nar 
rator  of  the  expedition:  — 

"  So  vpon  Saturday  in  the  afternoone  the 
31  of  August,  we  changed  our  course,  and 
returned  backe  for  England,  at  which  very 
instant,  euen  in  winding  about,  there  passed 
along  betweene  vs  and  towards  the  land  which 
we  now  forsooke  a  very  lion  to  our  seeming, 
in  shape,  hair  and  colour,  not  swimming  after 
the  maner  of  a  beast  by  moouing  of  his  feete, 
but  rather  sliding  vpon  the  water  with  his  whole 
body  (excepting  the  legs)  in  sight,  neither  yet 
in  diuing  vnder,  and  againe  rising  aboue  the 
water,  as  the  maner  is,  of  Whales,  Dolphins, 
Tunise,  Porposes,  and  all  other  fish :  but  con- 


192  The  Search  for  Norumbega 

fidently  shewing  himselfe  aboue  water  without 
hiding :  Notwithstanding,  we  presented  our 
selues  in  open  view  and  gesture  to  amase 
him,  as  all  creatures  will  be  commonly  at  a 
sudden  gaze  and  sight  of  men.  Thus  he 
passed  along  turning  his  head  to  and  fro, 
yawning  and  gaping  wide,  with  ougly  demon 
stration  of  long  teeth,  and  glaring  eies,  and 
to  bidde  vs  a  farewell  (comming  right  against 
the  Hinde)  he  sent  forth  a  horrible  voyce, 
roaring  or  bellowing  as  doeth  a  lion,  which 
spectacle  wee  all  beheld  so  farre  as  we  were 
able  to  discerne  the  same,  as  men  prone  to 
wonder  at  euery  strange  thing,  as  this  doubt- 
lesse  was,  to  see  a  lion  in  the  Ocean  sea,  or 
fish  in  shape  of  a  lion.  What  opinion  others 
had  thereof,  and  chiefly  the  Generall  himselfe, 
I  forbeare  to  deliuer :  But  he  tooke  it  for 
Bonum  Omen  [a  good  omen],  reioycing  that 
he  was  to  warre  against  such  an  enemie,  if  it 
were  the  deuill." 

When  they  came  north  of  the  Azores,  very 
violent  storms  met  them ;  most  "  outrageous 
seas,"  the  narrator  says ;  and  they  saw  little 


The  Search  for  Norumbega  193 

lights  upon  the  mainyard  called  then  by  sailors 
"Castor  and  Pollux,"  and  now  "St.  Elmo's 
Fire " ;  yet  they  had  but  one  of  these  at  a 
time,  and  this  is  thought  a  sign  of  tempest.  On 
September  9,  in  the  afternoon,  "  the  general," 
as  they  called  him,  Sir  Humphrey,  was  sitting 
abaft  with  a  book  in  his  hand,  and  cried  out 
more  than  once  to  those  in  the  other  vessel, 
"  We  are  as  near  to  heaven  by  sea  as  by  land." 
And  that  same  night  about  twelve  o'clock,  the 
frigate  being  ahead  of  the  Golden  Hind,  the 
lights  of  the  smaller  vessel  suddenly  dis 
appeared,  and  they  knew  that  she  had  sunk 
in  the  sea.  The  event  is  well  described  in  a 
ballad  by  Longfellow. 

The  name  of  Norumbega  and  the  tradition 
of  its  glories  survived  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert. 
In  a  French  map  of  1543,  the  town  appears 
with  castle  and  towers.  Jean  Allfonsce,  who 
visited  New  England  in  that  year,  describes  it 
as  the  capital  of  a  great  fur  country.  Students 
of  Indian  tongues  defined  the  word  as  meaning 
"  the  place  of  a  fine  city "  ;  while  the  learned 
Grotius  seized  upon  it  as  being  the  same  as 


194  The  Search  for  Norumbega 

Norberga  and  so  affording  a  relic  of  the  visits  of 
the  Northmen.  As  to  the  locality,  it  appeared 
•first  on  the  maps  as  a  large  island,  then  as  a 
smaller  one,  and  after  1569  no  longer  as  an 
island,  but  a  part  of  the  mainland,  bordering 
apparently  on  the  Penobscot  River.  Whittier  in 
his  poem  of  "  Norumbega  "  describes  a  Norman 
knight  as  seeking  it  in  vain. 

"  He  turned  him  back,  4  O  master  dear, 

We  are  but  men  misled ; 
And  thou  hast  sought  a  city  here 
To  find  a  grave  instead. 


u '  No  builded  wonder  of  these  lands 

My  weary  eyes  shall  see ; 
A  city  never  made  with  hands 
Alone  awaiteth  me.' " 

So  Champlain,  in  1604,  could  find  no  trace 
of  it,  and  said  that  "  no  such  marvel  existed," 
while  Mark  Lescarbot,  the  Parisian  advocate, 
writing  in  1609,  says,  "If  this  beautiful  town 
ever  existed  in  nature,  I  would  like  to  know 
who  pulled  it  down,  for  there  is  nothing  here 


The  Search  for  Norumbega  195 

but  huts  made  of  pickets  and  covered  with  the 
barks  of  trees  or  skins. "  Yet  it  kept  its  place 
on  maps  till  1640,  and  even  Heylin  in  his 
"  Cosmography  "  (1669)  speaks  of  "  Norumbega 
and  its  fair  city/*  though  he  fears  that  the 
latter  never  existed. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  late  Mr.  Justin 
Winsor,  the  eminent  historian,  after  much  inquiry 
among  the  present  descendants  of  the  Indian 
tribes  in  Maine,  could  never  find  any  one  who 
could  remember  to  have  heard  the  name  of 
Norumbega. 


XVIII 
THE   GUARDIANS  OF  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE 

WHEN  in  1611  the  Sieur  de  Champlain 
went  back  to  France  to  report  his 
wonderful  explorations  in  Canada,  he 
was  soon  followed  by  a  young  Frenchman 
named  Vignan,  who  had  spent  a  whole  winter 
among  the  Indians,  in  a  village  where  there 
was  no  other  white  man.  This  was  a  method 
often  adopted  by  the  French  for  getting  more 
knowledge  of  Indian  ways  and  commanding 
their  confidence.  Vignan  had  made  himself 
a  welcome  guest  in  the  cabins,  and  had  brought 
away  many  of  their  legends,  to  which  he  added 
some  of  his  own.  In  particular,  he  declared 
that  he  had  penetrated  into  the  interior  until 
he  had  come  upon  a  great  lake  of  salt  water, 
far  to  the  northwest.  This  was,  as  it  happened, 
the  very  thing  which  the  French  government 
and  all  Europe  had  most  hoped  to  find.  They 

196 


The  Guardians  of  the  St.   Lawrence      197 

had  always  believed  that  sooner  or  later  a 
short  cut  would  be  discovered  across  the  newly 
found  continent,  a  passage  leading  to  the  Pa 
cific  Ocean  and  far  Cathay.  This  was  the 
dream  of  all  French  explorers,  and  of  Cham- 
plain  in  particular,  and  his  interest  was  at  once 
excited  by  anything  that  looked  toward  the 
Pacific.  Now  Vignan  had  prepared  himself 
with  just  the  needed  information.  He  said 
that  during  his  winter  with  the  Indians  he  had 
made  the  very  discovery  needed ;  that  he  had 
ascended  the  river  Ottawa,  which  led  to  a 
body  of  salt  water  so  large  that  it  seemed 
like  an  ocean ;  that  he  had  just  seen  on  its 
shores  the  wreck  of  an  English  ship,  from 
which  eighty  men  had  been  taken  and  slain 
by  the  savages,  and  that  they  had  with  them 
an  English  boy  whom  they  were  keeping  to 
present  to  Champlain. 

This  tale  about  the  English  ship  was  evidently 
founded  on  the  recent  calamities  of  Henry 
Hudson,  of  which  Vignan  had  heard  some  garbled 
account,  and  which  he  used  as  coloring  for  his 
story.  The  result  was  that  Champlain  was  thor- 


198     The  Guardians  of  the  St.   Lawrence 

oughly  interested  in  the  tale,  and  that  Vignan 
was  cross-examined  and  tested,  and  was  made  at 
last  to  certify  to  the  truth  of  it  before  two  nota 
ries  of  Rochelle.  Champlain  privately  consulted 
the  chancellor  de  Sillery,  the  old  Marquis  de 
Brissac,  and  others,  who  all  assured  him  that 
the  matter  should  be  followed  up ;  and  he  re 
solved  to  make  it  the  subject  of  an  exploration 
without  delay.  He  sailed  in  one  vessel,  and 
Vignan  in  another,  the  latter  taking  with  him 
an  ardent  young  Frenchman,  Albert  de  Brissac. 
M.  de  Vignan,  talking  with  the  young  Brissac 
on  the  voyage,  told  him  wonderful  tales  of 
monsters  which  were,  he  said,  the  guardians  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  River.  There  was,  he  said,  an 
island  in  the  bay  of  Chaleurs,  near  the  mouth  of 
that  river,  where  a  creature  dwelt,  having  the 
form  of  a  woman  and  called  by  the  Indians 
Gougou.  She  was  very  frightful,  and  so  enor 
mous  that  the  masts  of  the  vessel  could  not  reach 
her  waist.  She  had  already  eaten  many  savages 
and  constantly  continued  to  do  so,  putting  them 
first  into  a  great  pocket  to  await  her  hunger. 
Some  of  those  who  had  escaped  said  that  this 


The  Guardians  of  the  St.   Lawrence     199 

pocket  was  large  enough  to  hold  a  whole  ship. 
This  creature  habitually  made  dreadful  noises, 
and  several  savages  who  came  on  board  claimed 
to  have  heard  them.  A  man  from  St.  Malo  in 
France,  the  Sieur  de  Prevert,  confirmed  this 
story,  and  said  that  he  had  passed  so  near  the 
den  of  this  frightful  being,  that  all  on  board 
could  hear  its  hissing,  and  all  hid  themselves 
below,  lest  it  should  carry  them  off.  This 
naturally  made  much  impression  upon  the  young 
Sieur  de  Brissac,  and  he  doubtless  wished  many 
times  that  he  had  stayed  at  home.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  observed  that  both  M.  de  Vignan  and 
M.  de  Prevert  took  the  tale  very  coolly  and  that 
there  seemed  no  reason  why  he  should  distrust 
himself  if  they  did  not.  Yet  he  was  very  glad 
when,  after  passing  many  islands  and  narrow 
straits,  the  river  broadened  and  they  found  them 
selves  fairly  in  the  St.  Lawrence  and  past  the 
haunted  Bay  of  Chaleurs.  They  certainly  heard 
a  roaring  and  a  hissing  in  the  distance,  but  it 
may  have  been  the  waves  on  the  beach. 

But   this   was    not    their    last    glimpse    of  the 
supposed  guardians  of  the  St.  Lawrence.     As  the 


2oo     The  Guardians  of  the  St.   Lawrence 

ship  proceeded  farther  up  the  beautiful  river, 
they  saw  one  morning  a  boat  come  forth  from 
the  woods,  bearing  three  men  dressed  to  look 
like  devils,  wrapped  in  dogs'  skins,  white  and 
black,  their  faces  besmeared  as  black  as  any  coals, 
with  horns  on  their  heads  more  than  a  yard  long, 
and  as  this  boat  passed  the  ship,  one  of  the  men 
made  a  long  address,  not  looking  towards  them. 
Then  they  all  three  fell  flat  in  the  boat,  when  In 
dians  rowed  out  to  meet  them  and  guided  them 
to  a  landing. 

Then  many  Indians  collected  in  the  woods 
and  began  a  loud  talk  which  they  could  hear  on 
board  the  ships  and  which  lasted  half  an  hour. 
Then  two  of  their  leaders  came  towards  the 
shore,  holding  their  hands  upward  joined  to 
gether,  and  meanwhile  carrying  their  hats  under 
their  upper  garments  and  showing  great  rever 
ence.  Looking  upward  they  sometimes  cried, 
"  Jesus,  Jesus,"  or  "  Jesus  Maria."  Then  the 
captain  asked  them  whether  anything  ill  had 
happened,  and  they  said  in  French,  "  Nenni  est  il 
bon,"  meaning  that  it  was  not  good.  Then  they 
said  that  their  god  Cudraigny  had  spoken  in 


The  Guardians  of  the  St.   Lawrence     201 

Hochelaga  (Montreal)  and  had  sent  these  three 
men  to  show  to  them  that  there  was  so  much 
snow  and  ice  in  the  country  that  he  who  went 
there  would  die.  This  made  the  Frenchmen 
laugh,  saying  in  reply  that  their  god  Cudraigny 
was  but  a  fool  and  a  noddy  and  knew  not  what 
he  said.  "  Tell  him,"  said  a  Frenchman,  "  that 
Christ  will  defend  them  from  all  cold,  if  they  will 
believe  in  him."  The  Indians  then  asked  the 
captain  if  he  had  spoken  with  Jesus.  He  an 
swered  No  ;  but  that  his  priests  had,  and  they 
had  promised  fair  weather.  Hearing  this,  they 
thanked  the  captain  and  told  the  other  Indians 
in  the  woods,  who  all  came  rushing  out,  seeming 
to  be  very  glad.  Giving  great  shouts,  they  began 
to  sing  and  dance  as  they  had  done  before. 
They  also  began  to  bring  to  the  ships  great 
stores  of  fish  and  of  bread  made  of  millet,  casting 
it  into  the  French  boats  so  thickly  that  it  seemed 
to  fall  from  heaven.  Then  the  Frenchmen  went 
on  shore,  and  the  people  came  clustering  about 
them,  bringing  children  in  their  arms  to  be 
touched,  as  if  to  hallow  them.  Then  the 
captain  in  return  arranged  the  women  in  order 


2O2     The  Guardians  of  the  St.   Lawrence 

and  gave  them  beads  made  of  tin,  and  other  trifles, 
and  gave  knives  to  the  men.  All  that  night 
the  Indians  made  great  fires  and  danced  and 
sang  along  the  shore.  But  when  the  Frenchmen 
had  finally  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Ottawa 
and  had  begun  to  ascend  it,  under  Vignan's 
guidance,  they  had  reasons  to  remember  the 
threats  of  the  god  Cudraigny. 

Ascending  the  Ottawa  in  canoes,  past  cata 
racts,  boulders,  and  precipices,  they  at  last,  with 
great  labor,  reached  the  island  of  Allumette,  at 
a  distance  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles. 
Often  it  was  impossible  to  carry  their  canoes 
past  waterfalls,  because  the  forests  were  so  dense, 
so  that  they  had  to  drag  the  boats  by  ropes, 
wading  among  rocks  or  climbing  along  preci 
pices.  Gradually  they  left  behind  them  their 
armor,  their  provisions,  and  clothing,  keeping 
only  their  canoes ;  they  lived  on  fish  and  wild 
fowl,  and  were  sometimes  twenty-four  hours 
without  food.  Champlain  himself  carried  three 
French  arquebuses  or  short  guns,  three  oars, 
his  cloak,  and  many  smaller  articles  ;  and  was 
harassed  by  dense  clouds  of  mosquitoes  all  the 


The  Guardians  of  the  St.   Lawrence     203 

time.  Vignan,  Brissac,  and  the  rest  were  almost 
as  heavily  loaded.  The  tribe  of  Indians  whom 
they  at  last  reached  had  chosen  the  spot  as 
being  inaccessible  to  their  enemies  ;  and  thought 
that  the  newcomers  had  fallen  from  the  clouds. 
When  Champlain  inquired  after  the  salt  sea 
promised  by  Vignan,  he  learned  to  his  indigna 
tion  that  the  whole  tale  was  false.  Vignan  had 
spent  a  winter  at  the  very  village  where  they 
were,  but  confessed  that  he  had  never  gone  a 
league  further  north.  The  Indians  knew  of  no 
such  sea,  and  craved  permission  to  torture  and 
kill  him  for  his  deceptions ;  they  called  him 
loudly  a  liar,  and  even  the  children  took  up  the 
cry  and  jeered  at  him.  They  said,  "  Do  you 
not  see  that  he  meant  to  cause  your  death  ? 
Give  him  to  us,  and  we  promise  you  that  he 
shall  not  lie  any  more."  Champlain  defended 
him  from  their  attacks,  bore  it  all  philosophi 
cally,  and  the  young  Brissac  went  back  to 
France,  having  given  up  hope  of  reaching  the 
salt  sea,  except,  as  Champlain  himself  coolly 
said,  "  in  imagination."  The  guardians  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  had  at  least  exerted  their  spell  to 


204     The  Guardians  of  the  St.   Lawrence 

the  extent  of  saying,  Thus  far  and  no  farther. 
Vignan  never  admitted  that  he  had  invented 
the  story  of  the  Gougou,  and  had  bribed  the 
Indians  who  acted  the  part  of  devils,  —  and 
perhaps  he  did  not,  —  but  it  is  certain  that 
neither  the  giantess  nor  the  god  Cudraigny  has 
ever  again  been  heard  from. 


XIX 

THE   ISLAND    OF    DEMONS 

THOSE  American  travellers  who  linger 
with  delight  among  the  narrow  lanes 
and  picturesque,  overhanging  roofs  of 
Honfleur,  do  not  know  what  a  strange  tragedy 
took  place  on  a  voyage  which  began  in  that 
quaint  old  port  three  centuries  and  a  half  ago. 
When,  in  1536,  the  Breton  sailor  Jacques 
Cartier  returned  from  his  early  explorations  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  which  he  had  ascended  as 
high  as  Hochelaga,  King  Francis  I.  sent  for 
him  at  the  lofty  old  house  known  as  the  House 
of  the  Salamander,  in  a  narrow  street  of  the 
quaint  town  of  Lisieux.  It  now  seems  incredi 
ble  that  the  most  powerful  king  in  Europe 
should  have  dwelt  in  such  a  meagre  lane,  yet 
the  house  still  stands  there  as  a  witness ; 
although  a  visitor  must  now  brush  away  the 
rough,  ready-made  garments  and  fishermen's 

205 


206  The  Island  of  Demons 

overalls  which  overhang  its  door.  Over  that 
stairway,  nevertheless,  the  troubadours,  Pierre 
Ronsard  and  Clement  Marot,  used  to  go  up 
and  down,  humming  their  lays  or  touching 
their  viols ;  and  through  that  door  De  Lorge 
returned  in  glory,  after  leaping  down  into  the 
lions'  den  to  rescue  his  lady's  glove.  The 
house  still  derives  its  name  from  the  great 
carved  image  of  a  reptile  which  stretches  down 
its  outer  wall,  from  garret  to  cellar,  beside  the 
doorway. 

In  that  house  the  great  king  deigned  to  meet 
the  Breton  sailor,  who  had  set  up  along  the  St. 
Lawrence  a  cross  bearing  the  arms  of  France 
with  the  inscription  Franciscus  Primus^  Dei  gratia 
Francorum  Rex  regnat ;  and  had  followed  up 
the  pious  act  by  kidnapping  the  king  Donna- 
cona,  and  carrying  him  back  to  France.  This 
savage  potentate  was  himself  brought  to  Lisieux 
to  see  his  French  fellow-sovereign ;  and  the 
jovial  king,  eagerly  convinced,  decided  to  send 
Cartier  forth  again,  to  explore  for  other  won 
ders,  and  perhaps  bring  back  other  kingly 
brethren.  Meanwhile,  however,  as  it  was  get- 


The  Island  of  Demons  207 

ting  to  be  an  affair  of  royalty,  he  decided  to 
send  also  a  gentleman  of  higher  grade  than  a 
pilot,  and  so  selected  Jean  Francois  de  la 
Roche,  Sieur  de  Roberval,  whom  he  commis 
sioned  as  lieutenant  and  governor  of  Canada 
and  Hochelaga.  Roberval  was  a  gentleman 
of  credit  and  renown  in  Picardy,  and  was  some 
times  jocosely  called  by  Francis  "the  little  king 
of  Vimeu."  He  was  commissioned  at  Fon- 
tainebleau,  and  proceeded  to  superintend  the 
building  of  ships  at  St.  Malo. 

Marguerite  Roberval,  his  fair-haired  and 
black-eyed  niece,  was  to  go  with  him  on  the 
voyage,  with  other  ladies  of  high  birth,  and 
also  with  the  widowed  Madame  de  Noailles, 
her  gouvernante.  Roberval  himself  remained  at 
St.  Malo  to  superintend  the  building  of  the 
ships,  and  Marguerite  and  her  gouvernante  would 
sit  for  hours  in  a  beautiful  nook  by  the  ship 
yards,  where  they  could  overlook  the  vessels  in 
rapid  construction,  or  else  watch  the  wondrous 
swirl  of  the  tide  as  it  swept  in  and  out,  leaving 
the  harbor  bare  at  low  tide,  but  with  eight  fath 
oms  of  water  when  the  tide  was  full.  The  de- 


208  The  Island  of  Demons 

signer  of  the  ships  often  came,  cap  in  hand,  to 
ask  or  answer  questions  —  one  of  those  frank 
and  manly  French  fishermen  and  pilots,  whom 
the  French  novelists  describe  as  "  un  solide  gail- 
lard"  or  such  as  Victor  Hugo  paints  in  his 
"  Les  Travailleurs  de  la  Mer."  The  son  of  a 
notary,  Etienne  Gosselin  was  better  educated 
than  most  of  the  young  noblemen  whom  Mar 
guerite  knew,  and  only  his  passion  for  the  sea 
and  for  nautical  construction  had  kept  him  a 
shipbuilder.  No  wonder  that  the  young  Mar 
guerite,  who  had  led  the  sheltered  life  of  the 
French  maiden,  was  attracted  by  his  manly  look, 
his  open  face,  his  merry  blue  eyes,  and  curly  hair. 
There  was  about  her  a  tinge  of  romance,  which 
made  her  heart  an  easier  thing  to  reach  for  such 
a  lover  than  for  one  within  her  own  grade ;  and 
as  the  voyage  itself  was  a  world  of  romance, 
a  little  more  or  less  of  the  romantic  was  an 
easy  thing  to  add.  Meanwhile  Madame  de 
Noailles  read  her  breviary  and  told  her  beads 
and  took  little  naps,  wholly  ignorant  of  the 
drama  that  was  beginning  its  perilous  unfold 
ing  before  her.  When  the  Sieur  de  Roberval 


The  Island  of  Demons  209 

returned,   the   shipbuilder  became   a   mere  ship 
builder  again. 

Three  tall  ships  sailed  from  Honfleur  on  Au 
gust  22, 1 54 1, and  on  one  of  them,Z<z  Grande  H er 
mine, —  so  called  to  distinguish  it  from  a  smaller 
boat  of  that  name,  which  had  previously  sailed 
with  Cartier,  —  were  the  Sieur  de  Roberval,  his 
niece,  and  her  gouvernante.  She  also  had  with 
her  a  Huguenot  nurse,  who  had  been  with  her 
from  a  child,  and  cared  for  her  devotedly.  Ro 
berval  naturally  took  with  him,  for  future  needs, 
the  best  shipbuilder  of  St.  Malo,  Etienne  Gosse- 
lin.  The  voyage  was  long,  and  there  is  reason 
to  think  that  the  Sieur  de  Roberval  was  not  a 
good  sailor,  while  as  to  the  gouvernante,  she  may 
have  been  as  helpless  as  the  seasick  chaperon  of 
yachting  excursions.  Like  them,  she  suffered 
the  most  important  events  to  pass  unobserved, 
and  it  was  not  till  too  late  that  she  discovered, 
what  more  censorious  old  ladies  on  board  had 
already  seen,  that  her  young  charge  lingered  too 
often  and  too  long  on  the  quarter-deck  when 
Etienne  Gosselin  was  planning  ships  for  the 
uncle.  When  she  found  it  out,  she  was  roused 


2io  The  Island  of  Demons 

to  just  indignation ;  but  being,  after  all,  but  a 
kindly  dowager,  with  a  heart  softened  by  much 
reading  of  the  interminable  tales  of  Madame  de 
Scudery,  she  only  remonstrated  with  Margue 
rite,  wept  over  her  little  romance,  and  threatened 
to  break  the  sad  news  to  the  Sieur  de  Roberval, 
yet  never  did  so.  Other  ladies  were  less  consid 
erate  ;  it  all  broke  suddenly  upon  the  angry 
uncle  ;  the  youth  was  put  in  irons,  and  threatened 
with  flogging,  and  forbidden  to  approach  the 
quarter-deck  again.  But  love  laughs  at  lock 
smiths  ;  Gosselin  was  relieved  of  his  irons  in  a 
day  or  two  because  he  could  not  be  spared  from 
his  work  in  designing  the  forthcoming  ship, 
and  as  both  he  and  Marguerite  were  of  a  toler 
ably  determined  nature,  they  invoked,  through 
the  old  nurse,  the  aid  of  a  Huguenot  minister 
on  board,  who  had  before  sailed  with  Cartier  to 
take  charge  of  the  souls  of  some  Protestant  vaga 
bonds  on  the  ship,  and  who  was  now  making  a 
second  trip  for  the  same  reason.  That  night,  after 
dark,  he  joined  the  lovers  in  marriage ;  within 
twenty-four  hours  Roberval  had  heard  of  it,  and 
had  vowed  a  vengeance  quick  and  sure. 


The  Island  of  Demons  211 

The  next  morning,  under  his  orders,  the  ves 
sel  lay  to  under  the  lee  of  a  rocky  island,  then 
known  to  the  sailors  as  1'Isle  des  Demons 
from  the  fierce  winds  that  raged  round  it.  There 
was  no  house  there,  no  living  person,  no  tra 
dition  of  any ;  only  rocks,  sands,  and  deep 
forests.  With  dismay,  the  ship's  company 
heard  that  it  was  the  firm  purpose  of  Rober- 
val  to  put  the  offending  bride  on  shore,  giving 
her  only  the  old  nurse  for  company,  and  there 
to  leave  her  with  provisions  for  three  months, 
trusting  to  some  other  vessel  to  take  the  exiled 
women  away  within  that  time.  The  very  ladies 
whose  love  of  scandal  had  first  revealed  to  him 
the  alleged  familiarities,  now  besought  him  with 
many  tears  to  abandon  the  thought  of  a  doom 
so  terrible.  Vainly  Madame  de  Noailles  im 
plored  mercy  for  the  young  girl  from  a  penalty 
such  as  was  never  imposed  in  any  of  Madame 
de  Scudery's  romances ;  vainly  the  Huguenot 
minister  and  the  Catholic  chaplain,  who  had 
fought  steadily  on  questions  of  doctrine  during 
the  whole  voyage,  now  united  in  appeals  for 
pardon.  At  least  they  implored  him  to  let 


212  The  Island  of  Demons 

the  offenders  have  a  man-servant  or  two  with 
them  to  protect  them  against  wild  beasts  or 
buccaneers.  He  utterly  refused  until,  at  last 
wearied  out,  his  wild  nature  yielded  to  one  of 
those  sudden  impulses  which  were  wont  to 
sweep  over  it;  and  he  exclaimed,  "Is  it  that 
they  need  a  man-servant,  then  ?  Let  this  in 
solent  caitiff,  Gosselin,  be  relieved  of  his  irons 
and  sent  on  shore.  Let  him  be  my  niece's 
servant  or,  since  a  Huguenot  marriage  is  as 
good  as  any  in  the  presence  of  bears  and  buc 
caneers,  let  her  call  the  hound  her  husband,  if 
she  likes.  I  have  done  with  her ;  and  the 
race  from  which  she  came  disowns  her  forever." 
Thus  it  was  done.  Etienne  was  released 
from  his  chains  and  sent  on  shore.  An  arque 
bus  and  ammunition  were  given  him ;  and  re 
sisting  the  impulse  to  send  his  first  shot  through 
the  heart  of  his  tyrant,  he  landed,  and  the  last 
glimpse  seen  of  the  group  as  the  Grande  Her- 
mine  sailed  away,  was  the  figure  of  Marguerite 
sobbing  on  his  shoulder,  and  of  the  unhappy 
nurse,  now  somewhat  plethoric,  and  certainly 
not  the  person  to  be  selected  as  a  pioneer,  sit- 


The   Island  of  Demons  213 

ting  upon  a  rock,  weeping  profusely.  The 
ship's  sails  filled,  the  angry  Roberval  never 
looked  back  on  his  deserted  niece,  and  the 
night  closed  down  upon  the  lonely  Isle  of 
Demons,  now  newly  occupied  by  three  unex 
pected  settlers,  two  of  whom  at  least  were 
happy  in  each  other. 

A  few  boxes  of  biscuits,  a  few  bottles  of  wine, 
had  been  put  on  shore  with  them,  enough  to 
feed  them  for  a  few  weeks.  They  had  brought 
flint  and  steel  to  strike  fire,  and  some  ammu 
nition.  The  chief  penalty  of  the  crime  did  not 
lie,  after  all,  in  the  cold  and  the  starvation 
and  the  wild  beasts  and  the  possible  visits  of 
pirates ;  it  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  Island 
of  Demons  where  they  were  to  be  left;  and 
in  that  superstitious  age  this  meant  everything 
that  was  terrible.  For  the  first  few  nights  of 
their  stay,  they  fancied  that  they  heard  super 
human  voices  in  every  wind  that  blew,  every 
branch  that  creaked  against  another  branch ; 
and  they  heard,  at  any  rate,  more  substantial 
sounds  from  the  nightly  wolves  or  from  the 
bears  which  ice-floes  had  floated  to  that  north- 


214  The  Island  of  Demons 

ern  isle.  They  watched  Roberval  sail  away, 
he  rejoicing,  as  the  old  legend  of  Thevet  says, 
at  having  punished  them  without  soiling  his 
hands  with  their  blood  (ioueux  de  les  auior  puniz 
sans  se  souiller  les  mains  en  leurs  sang).  They 
built  as  best  they  could  a  hut  of  boughs  and 
strewed  beds  of  leaves,  until  they  had  killed 
wild  beasts  enough  to  prepare  their  skins. 
Their  store  of  hard  bread  lasted  them  but  a 
little  while,  but  there  were  fruits  around  them, 
and  there  was  fresh  water  near  by.  "Yet  it 
was  terrible,"  says  Thevet's  old  narrative,  "to 
hear  the  frightful  sounds  which  the  evil  spirits 
made  around  them,  and  how  they  tried  to  break 
down  their  abode,  and  showed  themselves  in 
various  forms  of  frightful  animals ;  yet  at  last, 
conquered  by  the  constancy  and  perseverance 
of  these  repentant  Christians,  the  tormentors 
afflicted  or  disquieted  them  no  more,  save  that 
often  in  the  night  they  heard  cries  so  loud 
that  it  seemed  as  if  more  than  five  thousand 
men  were  assembled  together  "  (plus  de  cent  mil 
tomes  qui  f us  sent  ensemble). 

So    passed    many    months    of  desolation,  and 


The  Island  of  Demons  215 

alas  !  the  husband  was  the  first  to  yield.  Daily  he 
climbed  the  rocks  to  look  for  vessels ;  each  night 
he  descended  sadder  and  sadder ;  he  waked  while 
the  others  slept.  Feeling  that  it  was  he  who  had 
brought  distress  upon  the  rest,  he  concealed  his 
depression,  but  it  soon  was  past  concealing ;  he 
only  redoubled  his  care  and  watching  as  his  wife 
grew  the  stronger  of  the  two ;  and  he  faded 
slowly  away  and  died.  His  wife  had  nothing  to 
sustain  her  spirits  except  the  approach  of  ma 
ternity —  she  would  live  for  her  child.  When 
the  child  was  born  and  baptized  in  the  name  of 
the  Holy  Church,  though  without  the  Church's 
full  ceremonies,  Marguerite  felt  the  strength  of 
motherhood ;  became  a  better  huntress,  a  better 
provider.  A  new  sorrow  came ;  in  the  sixteenth 
or  seventeenth  month  of  her  stay,  the  old  nurse 
died  also,  and  not  long  after  the  baby  followed. 
Marguerite  now  seemed  to  herself  deserted,  even 
by  Heaven  itself;  she  was  alone  in  that  northern 
island  without  comradeship ;  her  husband,  child, 
and  nurse  gone ;  dependent  for  very  food  on  the 
rapidly  diminishing  supply  of  ammunition.  Her 
head  swam ;  for  months  she  saw  visions  almost 


2i 6  The  Island  of  Demons 

constantly,  which  only  strenuous  prayer  banished, 
and  only  the  acquired  habit  of  the  chase  enabled 
her,  almost  mechanically,  to  secure  meat  to 
support  life.  Fortunately,  those  especial  sights 
and  sounds  of  demons  which  had  haunted  her 
imagination  during  the  first  days  and  nights  on 
the  island,  did  not  recur;  but  the  wild  beasts 
gathered  round  her  the  more  when  there  was  only 
one  gun  to  alarm  them ;  and  she  once  shot  three 
bears  in  a  day,  —  one  a  white  bear,  of  which  she 
secured  the  skin. 

What  imagination  can  depict  the  terrors  of  those 
lonely  days  and  still  lonelier  nights  ?  Most  persons 
left  as  solitary  tenants  of  an  island  have  dwelt,  like 
Alexander  Selkirk,  in  regions  nearer  the  tropics, 
where  there  was  at  least  a  softened  air,  a  fertile 
soil,  and  the  Southern  Cross  above  their  heads ; 
but  to  be  solitary  in  a  prolonged  winter,  to  be 
alone  with  the  Northern  Lights, — this  offered 
peculiar  terrors.  To  be  ice-bound,  to  hear  the 
wolves  in  their  long  and  dreary  howl,  to  protect 
the  very  graves  of  her  beloved  from  being  dug 
up,  to  watch  the  floating  icebergs,  not  knowing 
what  new  and  savage  visitor  might  be  borne  by 


The  Island  of  Demons  217 

them  to  the  island,  what  a  complication  of  terror 
was  this  for  Marguerite  ! 

For  two  years  and  five  months  in  all  she  dwelt 
upon  the  Isle  of  Demons,  the  last  year  wholly 
alone.  Then,  as  she  stood  upon  the  shore,  some 
Breton  fishing-smacks,  seeking  codfish,  came  in 
sight.  Making  signals  with  fire  and  calling  for 
aid,  she  drew  them  nearer ;  but  she  was  now 
dressed  in  furs  only,  and  seemed  to  them  but  one  of 
the  fancied  demons  of  the  island.  Beating  up 
slowly  and  watchfully  toward  the  shore,  they 
came  within  hearing  of  her  voice  and  she  told 
her  dreary  tale.  At  last  they  took  her  in  charge, 
and  bore  her  back  to  France  with  the  bearskins 
she  had  prepared  ;  and  taking  refuge  in  the  village 
of  Nautron,  in  a  remote  province  (Perigord), 
where  she  could  escape  the  wrath  of  Roberval, 
she  told  her  story  to  Thevet,  the  explorer,  to  the 
Princess  Marguerite  of  Navarre  (sister  of  Francis 
I.),  and  to  others.  Thevet  tells  it  in  his  "  Cos- 
mographie,"  and  Marguerite  of  Navarre  in  her 
"  Cent  Nouvelles  Nouvelles." 

She  told  Thevet  that  after  the  first  two  months, 
the  demons  came  to  her  no  more,  until  she  was 


21 8  The  Island  of  Demons 

left  wholly  alone ;  then  they  renewed  their  visits, 
but  not  continuously,  and  she  felt  less  fear. 
Thevet  also  records  of  her  this  touching  confes 
sion,  that  when  the  time  came  for  her  to  embark, 
in  the  Breton  ship,  for  home,  there  came  over 
her  a  strong  impulse  to  refuse  the  embarkation, 
but  rather  to  die  in  that  solitary  place,  as  her 
husband,  her  child,  and  her  servant  had  already 
died.  This  profound  touch  of  human  nature 
does  more  than  anything  else  to  confirm  the  tale 
as  substantially  true.  Certain  it  is  that  the  lonely 
island  which  appeared  so  long  on  the  old  maps  as 
the  Isle  of  Demons  (1'Isola  de  Demoni)  appears 
differently  in  later  ones  as  the  Lady's  Island 
(1'Isle  de  la  Demoiselle). 

The  Princess  Marguerite  of  Navarre,  who 
died  in  1549,  seems  also  to  have  known  her 
namesake  at  her  retreat  in  Perigord,  gives  some 
variations  from  Thevet's  story,  and  describes  her 
as  having  been  put  on  shore  with  her  husband, 
because  of  frauds  which  he  had  practised  on 
Roberval;  nor  does  she  speak  of  the  nurse  or 
of  the  child.  But  she  gives  a  similar  descrip 
tion  of  Marguerite's  stay  on  the  island,  after 


The  Island  of  Demons  219 

his  death,  and  says,  that  although  she  lived  what 
might  seem  a  bestial  life  as  to  her  body,  it  was 
a  life  wholly  angelic  as  regarded  her  soul 
(ainsi  vivant,  quant  au  corps,  de  vie  bestiale,  et 
quant  a  V  esprit,  de  vie  angelicque).  She  had,  the 
princess  also  says,  a  mind  cheerful  and  content, 
in  a  body  emaciated  and  half  dead.  She  was 
afterwards  received  with  great  honor  in  France^ 
according  to  the  princess,  and  was  encouraged 
to  establish  a  school  for  little  children,  where 
she  taught  reading  and  writing  to  the  daughters 
of  high-born  families.  "And  by  this  honest 
industry,"  says  the  princess,  "she  supported 
herself  during  the  remainder  of  her  life,  having 
no  other  wish  than  to  exhort  every  one  to  love 
and  confidence  towards  God,  offering  them  as 
an  example,  the  great  pity  which  he  had  shown 
for  her." 


XX 

BIMINI   AND   THE   FOUNTAIN   OF 
YOUTH 

WHEN  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon  set  forth 
from  Porto  Rico,  March  13,  1512, 
to  seek  the  island  of  Bimini  and  its 
Fountain  of  Youth,  he  was  moved  by  the  love  of 
adventure  more  than  by  that  of  juvenility,  for 
he  was  then  but  about  fifty,  a  time  when  a  cava 
lier  of  his  day  thought  himself  but  in  his  prime. 
He  looked  indeed  with  perpetual  sorrow  —  as 
much  of  it  as  a  Spaniard  of  those  days  could 
feel  —  upon  his  kinsman  Luis  Ponce,  once  a 
renowned  warrior,  but  on  whom  age  had  al 
ready,  at  sixty-five,  laid  its  hand  in  earnest. 
There  was  little  in  this  slowly  moving  veteran 
to  recall  one  who  had  shot  through  the  lists 
at  the  tournament,  and  had  advanced  with  his 
short  sword  at  the  bull  fight,  —  who  had  ruled 
his  vassals,  and  won  the  love  of  high-born 
women.  It  was  a  vain  hope  of  restored  youth 

220 


Bimini  and  the  Fountain  of  Youth     221 

which  had  brought  Don  Luis  from  Spain  to 
Porto  Rico  four  years  before ;  and,  when  Ponce 
de  Leon  had  subdued  that  island,  his  older 
kinsman  was  forever  beseeching  him  to  carry 
his  flag  farther,  and  not  stop  till  he  had  reached 
Bimini,  and  sought  the  Fountain  of  Youth. 

"  For  what  end,"  he  said,  "  should  you  stay 
here  longer  and  lord  it  over  these  miserable 
natives  ?  Let  us  go  where  we  can  bathe  in 
those  enchanted  waters  and  be  young  once 
more.  I  need  it,  and  you  will  need  it  ere  long." 

"How  know  we,"  said  his  kinsman,  "that 
there  is  any  such  place  ? " 

"All  know  it,"  said  Luis.  "Peter  Martyr 
saith  that  there  is  in  Bimini  a  continual  spring 
of  running  water  of  such  marvellous  virtue  that 
the  water  thereof,  being  drunk,  perhaps  with 
some  diet,  maketh  old  men  young."  And  he 
adds  that  an  Indian  grievously  oppressed  with 
old  age,  moved  with  the  fame  of  that  fountain, 
and  allured  through  the  love  of  longer  life,  went 
to  an  island,  near  unto  the  country  of  Florida,  to 
drink  of  the  desired  fountain,  .  .  .  and  hav 
ing  well  drunk  and  washed  himself  for  many 


222     Bimini  and  the  Fountain  of  Youth 

days  with  the  appointed  remedies,  by  them  who 
kept  the  bath,  he  is  reported  to  have  brought 
home  a  manly  strength,  and  to  have  used  all 
manly  exercises.  "  Let  us  therefore  go  thither," 
he  cried,  "  and  be  like  him." 

They  set  sail  with  three  brigantines  and  found 
without  difficulty  the  island  of  Bimini  among 
the  Lucayos  (or  Bahamas)  islands ;  but  when 
they  searched  for  the  Fountain  of  Youth  they  were 
pointed  farther  westward  to  Florida,  where  there 
was  said  to  be  a  river  of  the  same  magic  powers, 
called  the  Jordan.  Touching  at  many  a  fair 
island  green  with  trees,  and  occupied  by  a  gentle 
population  till  then  undisturbed,  it  was  not 
strange  if,  nearing  the  coast  of  Florida,  both 
Juan  Ponce  de  Leon  and  his  more  impatient 
cousin  expected  to  find  the  Fountain  of  Youth. 

They  came  at  last  to  an  inlet  which  led  invit 
ingly  up  among  wooded  banks  and  flowery 
valleys,  and  here  the  older  knight  said,  "  Let  us 
disembark  here  and  strike  inland.  My  heart 
tells  me  that  here  at  last  will  be  found  the 
Fountain  of  Youth."  "  Nonsense,"  said  Juan, 
"  our  way  lies  by  water." 


Bitnini  and  the  Fountain  of  Youth     223 

c<Then  leave  me  here  with  my  men,"  said 
Luis.  He  had  brought  with  him  five  servants, 
mostly  veterans,  from  his  own  estate  in  Spain. 

A  fierce  discussion  ended  in  Luis  obtaining 
his  wish,  and  being  left  for  a  fortnight  of  explora 
tion  ;  his  kinsman  promising  to  come  for  him 
again  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  St.  John.  The 
men  left  on  shore  were  themselves  past  middle 
age,  and  the  more  eager  for  their  quest.  They 
climbed  a  hill  and  watched  the  brigantines  dis 
appear  in  the  distance ;  then  set  up  a  cross, 
which  they  had  brought  with  them,  and  prayed 
before  it  bareheaded. 

Sending  the  youngest  of  his  men  up  to  the 
top  of  a  tree,  Luis  learned  from  him  that  they 
were  on  an  island,  after  all,  and  this  cheered  him 
much,  as  making  it  more  likely  that  they  should 
find  the  Fountain  of  Youth.  He  saw  that  the 
ground  was  pawed  up,  as  if  in  a  cattle-range  and 
that  there  was  a  path  leading  to  huts.  Taking 
this  path,  they  met  fifty  Indian  bowmen,  who, 
whether  large  or  not,  seemed  to  them  like  giants. 
The  Spaniards  gave  them  beads  and  hawk-bells, 
and  each  received  in  return  an  arrow,  as  a  token 


224     Bimini  and  the  Fountain  of  Youth 

of  friendship.  The  Indians  promised  them  food 
in  the  morning,  and  brought  fish,  roots,  and  pure 
water ;  and  finding  them  chilly  from  the  coldness 
of  the  night,  carried  them  in  their  arms  to  their 
homes,  first  making  four  or  five  large  fires  on 
the  way.  At  the  houses  there  were  many  fires, 
and  the  Spaniards  would  have  been  wholly  com 
fortable,  had  they  not  thought  it  just  possible 
that  they  were  to  be  offered  as  a  sacrifice.  Still 
fearing  this,  they  left  their  Indian  friends  after  a 
few  days  and  traversed  the  country,  stopping  at 
every  spring  or  fountain  to  test  its  quality.  Alas ! 
they  all  grew  older  and  more  worn  in  look,  as  time 
went  on,  and  farther  from  the  Fountain  of  Youth. 
After  a  time  they  came  upon  new  tribes  of  Indi 
ans,  and  as  they  went  farther  from  the  coast  these 
people  seemed  more  and  more  friendly.  They 
treated  the  white  men  as  if  come  from  heaven,  — 
brought  them  food,  made  them  houses,  carried 
every  burden  for  them.  Some  had  bows,  and  went 
upon  the  hills  for  deer,  and  brought  half  a  dozen 
every  night  for  their  guests ;  others  killed  hares 
and  rabbits  by  arranging  themselves  in  a  circle  and 
striking  down  the  game  with  billets  of  wood  as 


Bimini  and  the  Fountain  of  Youth     225 

it  ran  from  one  to  another  through  the  woods. 
All  this  game  was  brought  to  the  visitors  to  be 
breathed  upon  and  blessed,  and  when  this  had  to 
be  done  for  several  hundred  people  it  became 
troublesome.  The  women  also  brought  wild 
fruit,  and  would  eat  nothing  till  the  guests  had 
seen  and  touched  it.  If  the  visitors  seemed 
offended,  the  natives  were  terrified,  and  appar 
ently  thought  that  they  should  die  unless  they 
had  the  favor  of  these  wise  and  good  men. 
Farther  on,  people  did  not  come  out  into  the 
paths  to  gather  round  them,  as  the  first  had 
done,  but  stayed  meekly  in  their  houses,  sitting 
with  their  faces  turned  to  the  wall,  and  with 
their  property  heaped  in  the  middle  of  the 
room.  From  these  people  the  travellers  re 
ceived  many  valuable  skins,  and  other  gifts. 
Wherever  there  was  a  fountain,  the  natives  readily 
showed  it,  but  apparently  knew  nothing  of  any 
miraculous  gift ;  yet  they  themselves  were  in 
such  fine  physical  condition,  and  seemed  so 
young  and  so  active,  that  it  was  as  if  they  had 
already  bathed  in  some  magic  spring.  They 
had  wonderful  endurance  of  heat  and  cold,  and 


226     Bimini  and  the  Fountain  of  Youth 

such  health  that,  when  their  bodies  were  pierced 
through  and  through  by  arrows,  they  would 
recover  rapidly  from  their  wounds.  These 
things  convinced  the  Spaniards  that,  even  if  the 
Indians  would  not  disclose  the  source  of  all  their 
bodily  freshness,  it  must,  at  any  rate,  lie  some 
where  in  the  neighborhood.  Yet  a  little  while, 
no  doubt,  and  their  visitors  would  reach  it. 

It  was  a  strange  journey  for  these  gray  and 
careworn  men  as  they  passed  up  the  defiles  and 
valleys  along  the  St.  John's  River,  beyond  the 
spot  where  now  spreads  the  city  of  Jacksonville, 
and  even  up  to  the  woods  and  springs  about 
Magnolia  and  Green  Cove.  Yellow  jasmines 
trailed  their  festoons  above  their  heads ;  wild 
roses  grew  at  their  feet ;  the  air  was  filled  with 
the  aromatic  odors  of  pine  or  sweet  bay  ;  the 
long  gray  moss  hung  from  the  live-oak  branches ; 
birds  and  butterflies  of  wonderful  hues  fluttered 
around  them  ;  and  strange  lizards  crossed  their 
paths,  or  looked  with  dull  and  blinking  eyes 
from  the  branches.  They  came,  at  last,  to  one 
spring  which  widened  into  a  natural  basin,  and 
which  was  so  deliciously  aromatic  that  Luis  Ponce 


Bimini  and  the  Fountain  of  Youth     227 

said,  on  emerging  :  "  It  is  enough.  I  have  bathed 
in  the  Fountain  of  Youth,  and  henceforth  I  am 
young."  His  companions  tried  it,  and  said  the 
same :  "  The  Fountain  of  Youth  is  found." 

No  time  must  now  be  lost  in  proclaiming  the 
great  discovery.  They  obtained  a  boat  from  the 
natives,  who  wept  at  parting  with  the  white  stran 
gers  whom  they  had  so  loved.  In  this  boat  they 
proposed  to  reach  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John, 
meet  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon,  and  carry  back  the 
news  to  Spain.  But  one  native,  whose  wife  and 
children  they  had  cured,  and  who  had  grown 
angry  at  their  refusal  to  stay  longer,  went  down 
to  the  water's  edge  and,  sending  an  arrow  from 
his  bow,  transfixed  Don  Luis,  so  that  even  his 
foretaste  of  the  Fountain  could  not  save  him, 
and  he  died  ere  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  river. 
If  Don  Luis  ever  reached  what  he  sought,  it 
was  in  another  world.  But  those  who  have 
ever  bathed  in  Green  Cove  Spring,  near  Mag 
nolia,  on  the  St.  John's  River,  will  be  ready  to 
testify  that,  had  he  but  stayed  there  longer,  he 
would  have  found  something  to  recall  his  visions 
of  the  Fountain  of  Youth. 


NOTES 

PREFACE 

A  FULL  account  of  the  rediscovery  of  the  Canaries  in  1341 
will  be  found  in  Major's  "Life  of  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal" 
(London,  1868),  p.  138.  For  the  statement  as  to  the  linger 
ing  belief  in  the  Jacquet  Island,  see  Winsor's  "Columbus," 
p.  in.  The  extract  from  Cowley  is  given  by  Herman  Melville 
in  his  picturesque  paper  on  "The  Encantadas "  (Putnam's 
Magazine,  III.  319).  In  Harris's  "Voyages"  (1702)  there 
is  a  map  giving  "Cowley's  Inchanted  Isl."  (I.  78),  but 
there  is  no  explanation  of  the  name.  The  passage  quoted  by 
Melville  is  not  to  be  found  in  Cowley's  "Voyage  to  Magel- 
lanica  and  Polynesia,"  given  by  Harris  in  the  same  volume,  and 
must  be  taken  from  Cowley's  "Voyage  round  the  Globe," 
which  I  have  not  found  in  any  library. 

I.     ATLANTIS 

FOR  the  original  narrative  of  Socrates,  see  Plato's  "  Timzeus  " 
and  "Critias,"  in  each  of  which  it  is  given.  For  further  in 
formation  see  the  chapter  on  the  Geographical  Knowledge  of  the 
Ancients  by  W.  H.  Tillinghast,  in  Winsor's  "Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America,"  I.  15.  He  mentions  (I.  19, 
note)  a  map  printed  at  Amsterdam  in  1678  by  Kircher,  which 
shows  Atlantis  as  a  large  island  midway  between  Spain  and 

229 


230  Notes 

America.  Ignatius  Donnelly's  "Atlantis,  the  Antediluvian 
World"  (N.  Y.  1882),  maintains  that  the  evidence  for  the 
former  existence  of  such  an  island  is  irresistible,  and  his  work 
has  been  very  widely  read,  although  it  is  not  highly  esteemed 
by  scholars. 

II.     TALIESSIN 

THE  Taliessin  legend  in  its  late  form  cannot  be  traced  back  be 
yond  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  but  the  account  of  the  trans 
formation  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Book  of  Taliessin,"  a  manuscript 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  preserved  in  the  Hengwt  Collection 
at  Peniarth.  The  Welsh  bard  himself  is  supposed  to  have 
flourished  in  the  sixth  century.  See  Alfred  Nutt  in  "  The  Voy 
age  of  Bram"  (London,  1897),  II.  86.  The  traditions  may  be 
found  in  Lady  Charlotte  Guest's  translation  of  the  "  Mabino- 
gion,"  zd  ed.,  London,  1877,  p.  471.  The  poems  may  be 
found  in  the  original  Welsh  in  Skene's  "Four  Ancient  Books  of 
Wales,"  2  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1868;  and  he  also  gives  a  fac 
simile  of  the  manuscript. 

III.     CHILDREN   OF  LIR 

THE  lovely  legend  of  the  children  of  Lir  or  Lear  forms  one  of 
those  three  tales  of  the  old  Irish  Bards  which  are  known  tradition 
ally  in  Ireland  as  "The  Three  Sorrows  of  Story  Telling."  It 
has  been  told  in  verse  by  Aubrey  de  Vere  ("  The  Foray  of  Queen 
Meave,  and  Other  Legends,"  London,  1882),  by  John  Todhun- 
ter  ("Three  Irish  Bardic  Tales,"  London,  1896)  ;  and  also  in 
prose  by  various  writers,  among  whom  are  Professor  Eugene 
O' Curry,  whose  version  with  the  Gaelic  original  was  published 


Notes  23 1 

in  "Atlantis,"  Nos.  vii.  and  viii.  ;  Gerald  Griffin  in  "  The  Tales 
of  a  Jury  Room  "  ;  and  Dr.  Patrick  Weston  Joyce  in  "Ancient 
Celtic  Romances"  (London,  1879).  The  oldest  manuscript 
copy  of  the  tale  in  Gaelic  is  one  in  the  British  Museum,  made 
in  1718  ;  but  there  are  more  modern  ones  in  different  English 
and  Irish  libraries,  and  the  legend  itself  is  of  much  older  origin. 
Professor  O 'Curry,  the  highest  authority,  places  its  date  before 
the  year  1000.  ("Lectures  on  the  Manuscript  Materials  of 
Irish  History,"  p.  319.) 

IV.     USHEEN 

IN  the  original  legend,  Oisin  or  Usheen  is  supposed  to  have 
told  his  tale  to  St.  Patrick  on  his  arrival  in  Ireland  ;  but  as  the 
ancient  Feni  were  idolaters,  the  hero  bears  but  little  goodwill  to 
the  saint.  The  Celtic  text  of  a  late  form  of  the  legend  (1749) 
with  a  version  by  Brian  O'Looney  will  be  found  in  the  trans 
actions  of  the  Ossianic  Society  for  1856  (Vol.  IV.  p.  227); 
and  still  more  modern  and  less  literal  renderings  in  P.  W.  Joyce's 
"Ancient  Celtic  Romances"  (London,  1879),  ?•  3^5*  an<^ 
in  W.  B.  Yeats's  "Wanderings  of  Oisin,  and  Other  Poems" 
(London,  1889),  p.  I.  The  last  is  in  verse  and  is  much  the  best. 
St.  Patrick,  who  takes  part  in  it,  regards  Niam  as  "a  demon 
thing."  See  also  the  essays  entitled  "  L'  Ely  see  Transatlan- 
tique,"  by  Eugene  Beauvois,  in  the  "Revue  de  L'Histoire  des 
Religions,"  VII.  273  (Paris,  1885),  and  "L' Eden  Occidental  " 
(same,  VII.  673).  As  to  Oisin  or  Usheen' s  identity  with  Os- 
sian,  see  O' Curry's  "Lectures  on  the  Manuscript  Materials  for 
Ancient  Irish  History"  (Dublin,  1861),  pp.  209,  300  ;  John 
Rhys' s  "Hibbert  Lectures"  (London,  1888),  p.  551.  The 


232  Notes 

latter  thinks  the  hero  identical  with  Taliessin,  as  well  as  with 
Ossian,  and  says  that  the  word  Ossin  means  "a  little  fawn," 
from  "os,"  "cervus."  (See  also  O'Curry,  p.  304.) 
O'Looney  represents  that  it  was  a  stone  which  Usheen  threw 
to  show  his  strength,  and  Joyce  follows  this  view  ;  but  another 
writer  in  the  same  volume  of  the  Ossianic  Society  transactions 
(p.  233)  makes  it  a  bag  of  sand,  and  Yeats  follows  this  ver 
sion.  It  is  also  to  be  added  that  the  latter  in  later  editions 
changes  the  spelling  of  his  hero's  name  from  Oisin  to  Usheen. 

V.     BRAN 

THE  story  of  Bran  and  his  sister  Branwen  may  be  found  most 
fully  given  in  Lady  Charlotte  Guest's  translation  of  the  "  Mab- 
inogion,"  ed.  1877,  pp.  369,  384.  She  considers  Harlech, 
whence  Bran  came,  to  be  a  locality  on  the  Welsh  seacoast  still 
known  by  that  name  and  called  also  Branwen' s  Tower.  But 
Rhys,  a  much  higher  authority,  thinks  that  Bran  came  really 
from  the  region  of  Hades,  and  therefore  from  a  distant  island 
("Arthurian  Legend,"  p.  250,  "  Hibbert  Lectures,"  pp.  94, 
269).  The  name  of  "the  Blessed  "  came  from  the  legend  of 
Bran's  having  introduced  Christianity  into  Ireland,  as  stated  in 
one  of  the  Welsh  Triads.  He  was  the  father  of  Caractacus, 
celebrated  for  his  resistance  to  the  Roman  conquest,  and  carried 
a  prisoner  to  Rome.  Another  triad  speaks  of  King  Arthur  as 
having  dug  up  Bran's  head,  for  the  reason  that  he  wished  to 
hold  England  by  his  own  strength ;  whence  followed  many  dis 
asters  (Guest,  p. 3 87). 

There  were  many  Welsh  legends  in  regard  to  Branwen  or 
Bronwen  (White  Bosom),  and  what  is  supposed  to  be  her 


Notes  233 

grave,  with  an  urn  containing  her  ashes,  may  still  be  seen  at 
a  place  called  "Ynys  Bronwen,"  or  "the  islet  of  Bronwen," 
in  Anglesea.  It  was  discovered  and  visited  in  1813  (Guest, 
p.  389). 

The  White  Mount  in  which  Bran's  head  was  deposited  is 
supposed  to  have  been  the  Tower  of  London,  described  by 
a  Welsh  poet  of  the  twelfth  century  as  "  The  White  Eminence 
of  London,  a  place  of  splendid  fame"  (Guest,  p.  392). 

VI.     THE   CASTLE   OF   THE   ACTIVE   DOOR 

THIS  legend  is  mainly  taken  from  different  parts  of  Lady 
Charlotte  Guest's  translation  of  the  "  Mabinogion,"  with  some 
additions  and  modifications  from  Rhys' s  "  Hibbert  Lectures" 
and  "The  Arthurian  Legend." 

VIII.     MERLIN 

IN  later  years  Merlin  was  known  mainly  by  a  series  of  re 
markable  prophecies  which  were  attributed  to  him  and  were 
often  said  to  be  fulfilled  by  actual  events  in  history.  Thus  one 
of  the  many  places  where  Merlin's  grave  was  said  to  be  was 
Drummelzion  in  Tweeddale,  Scotland.  On  the  east  side  of  the 
churchyard  a  brook  called  the  Pansayl  falls  into  the  Tweed,  and 
there  was  this  prophecy  as  to  their  union  :  — 

"When  Tweed  and  Pansayl  join  at  Merlin' s  grave, 
Scotland  and  England  shall  one  monarch  have." 

Sir  Walter  Scott  tells  us,  in  his  "Border  Minstrelsy,"  that  on 
the  day  of  the  coronation  of  James  VI.  of  Scotland  the  Tweed 


234  Notes 

accordingly  overflowed  and  joined  the  Pansayl  at  the  prophet*  s 
grave.  It  was  also  claimed  by  one  of  the  witnesses  at  the  trial 
of  Jeanne  d'Arc,  that  there  was  a  prediction  by  Merlin  that 
France  would  be  saved  by  a  peasant  girl  from  Lorraine.  These 
prophesies  have  been  often  reprinted,  and  have  been  translated 
into  different  languages,  and  there  was  published  in  London,  in 
1641,  "The  Life  of  Merlin,  surnamed  Ambrosius,  His  Prophe 
sies  and  Predictions  interpreted,  and  their  Truth  made  Good  by 
our  English  Annals."  Another  book  was  also  published  in 
London,  in  1683,  called  "Merlin  revived  in  a  Discourse  of 
Prophesies,  Predictions,  and  their  Remarkable  Accomplish- 


VIII.     LANCELOT 

THE  main  sources  of  information  concerning  Lancelot  are  the 
"Morte  d' Arthur,"  Newell* s  "King  Arthur  and  the  Table 
Round,"  and  the  publications  of  the  Early  English  Text 
Society.  See  also  Rhys' s  "Arthurian  Legend,"  pp.  127, 
147,  etc. 

IX.     THE   HALF-MAN 

THE  symbolical  legend  on  which  this  tale  is  founded  will  be 
found  in  Lady  Charlotte  Guest's  translation  of  the  "  Mabinogion  " 
(London,  1 8  7  7  ) ,  II.  p.  3  44.  It  is  an  almost  unique  instance,  in 
the  imaginative  literature  of  that  period,  of  a  direct  and  avowed 
allegory.  There  is  often  allegory,  but  it  is  usually  contributed 
by  modern  interpreters,  and  would  sometimes  greatly  astound  the 
original  fabulists. 


Notes  235 

X.     ARTHUR 

THE  earliest  mention  of  the  island  of  Avalon,  or  Avilion,  in 
connection  with  the  death  of  Arthur,  is  a  slight  one  by  the  old 
English  chronicler,  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  (Book  XI.  c.  2), 
and  the  event  is  attributed  by  him  to  the  year  542.  Wace's 
French  romance  was  an  enlargement  of  Geoffrey  ;  and  the  nar 
rative  of  Layamon  (at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century)  an  ex 
planation  of  that  of  Wace.  Layamon's  account  of  the  actual 
death  of  Arthur,  as  quoted  in  the  text,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
translation,  a  very  literal  one,  by  Madden  (Madden's  "Lay- 
am  on' s  Brut,"  III.  pp.  140-146). 

The  earliest  description  of  the  island  itself  is  by  an  anonymous 
author  known  as  "  Pseudo-Gildas,"  supposed  to  be  a  thirteenth- 
century  Breton  writer  (Meyer's  "  Voyage  of  Bram,"  I.  p.  237), 
and  quoted  by  Archbishop  Usher  in  his  "British  Ecclesiastical 
Antiquities"  (1637),  p.  273,  who  thus  describes  it  in  Latin 
hexameters  :  — 

"Cingitur  oceano  memorabilis  insula  nullis 
Desolata  bonis :   non  fur,  nee  praedo,  nee  hostis 
Insidiatur  ibi  :  nee  vis,  nee  bruma  nee  aestas, 
Immoderata  furit.      Pax  et  concordia,  pubes 
Ver  manent  asternum.      Nee  flos,  nee  lilia  desunt, 
Nee  rosa,  nee  violas  :  flores  et  poma  sub  una 
Fronde  gerit  pomus.      Habitant  sine  labe  cruoris 
Semper  ibi  juvenes  cum  virgine  :   nulla  senectus, 
Nulla  vis  morbi,  nullus  dolor ;  omnia  plena 
Lastitiae  ;  nihil  hie  proprium,  communia  quaeque. 
Regit  virgo  locis  et  rebus  praesidet  istis, 


236  Notes 

Virginibus  stipata  suis,  pulcherrima  pulchris  ; 
Nympha  decens  vultu,  generosis  patribus  orta, 
Consilio  pollens,  medicinae  nobilis  arte. 
At  simul  Arthurus  regni  diadema  reliquit, 
Substitutlque  sibi  regem,  se  transtulit  illic ; 
Anno  quingeno  quadragenoque  secundo 
Post  incarnatum  sine  patris  semine  natum. 
Immodice  laesus,  Arthurus  tendit  ad  aulam 
Regis  Avallonis  ;  ubi  virgo  regia  vulnus 
Illius  tractans,  sanati  membra  reservat 
Ipsa  sibi  :   vivuntque  simul  ;   si  credere  fas  est." 

A  translation  of  this  passage  into  rhyming  English  follows ; 
both  of  these  being  taken  from  Way's  "Fabliaux"  (London, 
1815),  II.  pp.  233-235. 

"By  the  main  ocean's  wave  encompass' d,  stands 
A  memorable  isle,  fill'd  with  all  good  : 
No  thief,  no  spoiler  there,  no  wily  foe 
With  stratagem  of  wasteful  war  ;  no  rage 
Of  heat  intemperate,  or  of  winter's  cold  ; 
But  spring,  full  blown,  with  peace  and  concord  reigns  : 
Prime  bliss  of  heart  and  season,  fitliest  join'd  ! 
Flowers  fail  not  there  :   the  lily  and  the  rose, 
With  many  a  knot  of  fragrant  violets  bound  ; 
And,  loftier,  clustering  down  the  bended  boughs, 
Blossom  with  fruit  combin'd,  rich  apples  hang. 

"  Beneath  such  mantling  shades  for  ever  dwell 
In  virgin  innocence  ami  honour  pure, 
Damsels  and  youths,  from  age  and  sickness  free, 


Notes  237 

And  ignorant  of  woe,  and  fraught  with  joy, 
In  choice  community  of  all  things  best. 

O'er  these,  and  o'er  the  welfare  of  this  land, 
Girt  with  her  maidens,  fairest  among  fair, 
Reigns  a  bright  virgin  sprung  from  generous  sires, 
In  counsel  strong,  and  skill' d  in  med'cine's  lore. 
Of  her  (Britannia's  diadem  consign'd 
To  other  brow),  for  his  deep  wound  and  wide 
Great  Arthur  sought  relief:  hither  he  sped 
(Nigh  two  and  forty  and  five  hundred  years 
Since  came  the  incarnate  Son  to  save  mankind), 
And  in  Avallon's  princely  hall  repos'd. 
His  wound  the  royal  damsel  search' d  ;  she  heal'd; 
And  in  this  isle  still  holds  him  to  herself 
In  sweet  society,  —  so  fame  say  true  !  " 

XI.     MAELDUIN 

THIS  narrative  is  taken  partly  from  Nutt's  "  Voyage  of 
Bram  "  (I.  162)  and  partly  from  Joyce's  "Ancient  Celtic  Ro 
mances."  The  latter,  however,  allows  Maelduin  sixty  com 
rades  instead  of  seventeen,  which  is  Nutt's  version.  There  are 
copies  of  the  original  narrative  in  the  Erse  language  at  the 
British  Museum,  and  in  the  library  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 
The  voyage,  which  may  have  had  some  reality  at  its  founda 
tion,  is  supposed  to  have  taken  place  about  the  year  700  A.D. 
It  belongs  to  the  class  known  as  Imrama,  or  sea-expeditions. 
Another  of  these  is  the  voyage  of  St.  Brandan,  and  another  is 
that  of  "the  sons  of  O'Corra."  A  poetical  translation  of  this 
last  has  been  made  by  T.  D.  Sullivan  of  Dublin,  and  published 


238  Notes 

in  his  volume  of  poems.  (Joyce,  p.  xiii.)  All  these  voyages 
illustrated  the  wider  and  wider  space  assigned  on  the  Atlantic 
ocean  to  the  enchanted  islands  until  they  were  finally  identified, 
in  some  cases,  with  the  continent  which  Columbus  found. 


XII.     ST.   BRANDAN 

THE  legend  of  St.  Brandan,  which  was  very  well  known  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  was  probably  first  written  in  Latin  prose  near 
the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  and  is  preserved  in  manuscript 
in  many  English  libraries.  An  English  metrical  version,  written 
probably  about  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  is  printed 
under  the  editorship  of  Thomas  Wright  in  the  publications  of  the 
Percy  Society,  London,  1844  (XIV.),  and  it  is  followed  in  the 
same  volume  by  an  English  prose  version  of  1527.  A  partial 
narrative  in  Latin  prose,  with  an  English  version,  may  be  found 
in  W.  J.  Rees's  "Lives  of  the  Cambro-British  Saints"  (Llan- 
dovery,  1853),  pp.  251,  575.  The  account  of  Brandan  in  the 
Acta  Sanctorum  of  the  Bollandists  may  be  found  under  May  16, 
the  work  being  arranged  under  saints'  days.  This  account  ex 
cludes  the  more  legendary  elements.  The  best  sketch  of  the 
supposed  island  appears  in  the  Nouvelles  Annaks  des  Voyages  for 
1845  (p.  293),  by  D'Avezac.  Professor  O'Curry  places  the 
date  of  the  alleged  voyage  or  voyages  at  about  the  year  560  (*'  Lec 
tures  on  the  Manuscript  Materials  for  Irish  History,"  p.  289). 
Good  accounts  of  the  life  in  the  great  monasteries  of  Brandan' s 
period  may  be  found  in  Digby's  "  Mores  Catholici  "  or  "Ages 
of  Faith"  ;  in  Montalembert's  "  Monks  of  the  West"  (trans 
lation)  ;  in  Villemarque' s  "La  Legende  Celtique  et  la  Poesie 
des  Cloistres  en  Irlande,  en  Cambric  et  en  Bretagne ' '  (Paris, 


Notes  239 

1864).  The  poem  on  St.  Brandan,  stanzas  from  which  are 
quoted  in  the  text,  is  by  Denis  Florence  McCarthy,  and  may 
be  found  in  the  DublinUniversity  Magazi?ie  (XXXI.  p.  89)  ;  and 
there  is  another  poem  on  the  subject  —  a  very  foolish  burlesque 
—  in  the  same  magazine  (LXXXIX.  p.  471).  Matthew  Ar 
nold's  poem  with  the  same  title  appeared  in  Fraser* s  Magazine 
(LXII.  p.  133),  and  may  be  found  in  the  author's  collected  works 
in  the  form  quoted  below. 

The  legends  of  St.  Brandan,  it  will  be  observed,  resemble  so 
much  the  tales  of  Sindbad  the  Sailor  and  others  in  the  "  Arabian 
Nights ' '  —  which  have  also  the  island- whale,  the  singing  birds, 
and  other  features  —  that  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  some 
features  of  tradition  were  held  in  common  with  the  Arabs  of 
Spain. 

In  later  years  (the  twelfth  century),  a  geographer  named 
Honore  d'Autun  declared,  in  his  "Image  of  the  World,"  that 
there  was  in  the  ocean  a  certain  island  agreeable  and  fertile  be 
yond  all  others,  now  unknown  to  men,  once  discovered  by 
chance  and  then  lost  again,  and  that  this  island  was  the  one 
which  Brandan  had  visited.  In  several  early  maps,  before  the 
time  of  Columbus,  the  Madeira  Islands  appear  as  "The  Fortu 
nate  Islands  of  St.  Brandan,"  and  on  the  famous  globe  of  Mar 
tin  Behaim,  made  in  the  very  year  when  Columbus  sailed,  there 
is  a  large  island  much  farther  west  than  Madeira,  and  near  the 
equator,  with  an  inscription  saying  that  in  the  year  565,  St. 
Brandan  arrived  at  this  island  and  saw  many  wondrous  things, 
returning  to  his  own  land  afterwards.  Columbus  heard  this 
island  mentioned  at  Ferro,  where  men  declared  that  they  had 
seen  it  in  the  distance.  Later,  the  chart  of  Ortelius,  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  carried  it  to  the  neighborhood  of  Ireland  ; 


240  Notes 

then  it  was  carried  south  again,  and  was  supposed  all  the  time 
to  change  its  place  through  enchantment,  and  when  Emanuel  of 
Portugal,  in  1519,  renounced  all  claim  to  it,  he  described  it  as 
"The  Hidden  Island."  In  1570  a  Portuguese  expedition  was 
sent  which  claimed  actually  to  have  touched  the  mysterious 
island,  indeed  to  have  found  there  the  vast  impression  of  a 
human  foot  —  doubtless  of  the  baptized  giant  Mildus  —  and 
also  a  cross  nailed  to  a  tree,  and  three  stones  laid  in  a  triangle 
for  cooking  food.  Departing  hastily  from  the  island,  they  left 
two  sailors  behind,  but  could  never  find  the  place  again. 

Again  and  again  expeditions  were  sent  out  in  search  of  St. 
B  randan's  island,  usually  from  the  Canaries  —  one  in  1604  by 
Acosta,  one  in  1721  by  Dominguez ;  and  several  sketches  of 
the  island,  as  seen  from  a  distance,  were  published  in  1759  by 
a  Franciscan  priest  in  the  Canary  Islands,  named  Viere  y  Clarijo, 
including  one  made  by  himself  on  May  3,  1759,  aDOUt  6  A.M., 
in  presence  of  more  than  forty  witnesses.  All  these  sketches 
depict  the  island  as  having  its  chief  length  from  north  to  south, 
and  formed  of  two  unequal  hills,  the  highest  of  these  being  at 
the  north,  they  having  between  them  a  depression  covered  with 
trees.  The  fact  that  this  resembles  the  general  form  of  Palma, 
one  of  the  Canary  Islands,  has  led  to  the  belief  that  it  may  have 
been  an  ocean  mirage,  reproducing  the  image  of  that  island, 
just  as  the  legends  themselves  reproduce,  here  and  there,  the 
traditions  of  the  "Arabian  Nights.*' 

In  a  map  drawn  by  the  Florentine  physician,  Toscanelli, 
which  was  sent  by  him  to  Columbus  in  1474  to  give  his  im 
pression  of  the  Asiatic  coast,  —  lying,  as  he  supposed,  across  the 
Atlantic,  —  there  appears  the  island  of  St.  Brandan.  It  is  as  large 
as  all  the  Azores  or  Canary  Islands  or  Cape  de  Verde  Islands 


Notes  241 

put  together  ;  its  southern  tip  just  touches  the  equator,  and  it 
lies  about  half-way  between  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands  and 
Zipangu  or  Japan,  which  was  then  believed  to  lie  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  Mr.  Winsor  also  tells  us  that  the  appari 
tion  of  this  island  "  sometimes  came  to  sailors'  eyes  "  as  late  as 
the  last  century  ( Winsor' s  "  Columbus,"  112). 

He  also  gives  a  reproduction  of  Toscanelli's  map  now  lost,  as 
far  as  can  be  inferred  from  descriptions  (Winsor,  p.  no). 

The  following  is  Matthew  Arnold' s  poem  :  — 

SAINT  BRANDAN 

Saint  Brandan  sails  the  northern  main  ; 

The  brotherhoods  of  saints  are  glad. 

He  greets  them  once,  he  sails  again  ; 

So  late  !  —  such  storms  !  —  the  Saint  is  mad  ! 

He  heard,  across  the  howling  seas, 
Chime  convent-bells  on  wintry  nights  ; 
He  saw,  on  spray- swept  Hebrides, 
Twinkle  the  monastery  lights ; 

But  north,  still  north,  Saint  Brandan  steer' d  — 
And  now  no  bells,  no  convents  more  ! 
The  hurtling  Polar  lights  are  near'd, 
The  sea  without  a  human  shore. 

At  last —  (it  was  the  Christmas-night ; 
Stars  shone  after  a  day  of  storm)  — 
He  sees  float  past  an  iceberg  white, 
And  on  it  —  Christ  !  —  a  living  form. 
R 


242  Notes 

That  furtive  mien,  that  scowling  eye, 
Of  hair  that  red  and  tufted  fell  — 
It  is  —  oh,  where  shall  Brandan  fly  ?  — 
The  traitor  Judas,  out  of  hell  ! 

Palsied  with  terror,  Brandan  sate  ; 
The  moon  was  bright,  the  iceberg  near. 
He  hears  a  voice  sigh  humbly  :   "  Wait  ! 
By  high  permission  I  am  here. 

"  One  moment  wait,  thou  holy  man  ! 

On  earth  my  crime,  my  death,  they  knew  ; 
My  name  is  under  all  men's  ban  — 
Ah,  tell  them  of  my  respite,  too  ! 

"  Tell  them,  one  blessed  Christmas-night  — 
(It  was  the  first  after  I  came, 
Breathing  self-murder,  frenzy,  spite, 
To  rue  my  guilt  in  endless  flame)  — 

"  I  felt,  as  I  in  torment  lay 

'Mid  the  souls  plagued  by  heavenly  power, 
An  angel  touch  my  arm  and  say  : 
Go  hence,  and  cool  thyself  an  hour  ! 

"  '  Ah,  whence  this  mercy,  Lord  ? '  I  said  ; 
The  Leper  recollect,  said  he, 
Who  ask'd  the  passers-by  for  aid, 
In  Joppa,  and  thy  charity. 


Notes  243 

"  Then  I  remember 'd  how  I  went, 
In  Joppa,  through  the  public  street, 
One  morn  when  the  sirocco  spent 
Its  storm  of  dust  with  burning  heat ; 

"  And  in  the  street  a  leper  sate, 
Shivering  with  fever,  naked,  old  ; 
Sand  raked  his  sores  from  heel  to  pate, 
The  hot  wind  fever' d  him  five-fold. 

"  He  gazed  upon  me  as  I  pass'd, 

And  murmur'd  :   Help  me,  or  I  die  !  — 
To  the  poor  wretch  my  cloak  I  cast, 
Saw  him  look  eased,  and  hurried  by. 

"  Oh,  Brandan,  think  what  grace  divine, 
What  blessing  must  full  goodness  shower, 
When  fragment  of  it  small,  like  mine, 
Hath  such  inestimable  power  ! 

"  Well-fed,  well-clothed,  well-friended,  I 
Did  that  chance  act  of  good,  that  one  ! 
Then  went  my  way  to  kill  and  lie  — 
Forgot  my  good  as  soon  as  done. 

"That  germ  of  kindness,  in  the  womb 
Of  mercy  caught,  did  not  expire  ; 
Outlives  my  guilt,  outlives  my  doom, 
And  friends  me  in  this  pit  of  fire. 


244  Notes 

"  Once  every  year,  when  carols  wake 
On  earth  the  Christmas-night's  repose, 
Arising  from  the  sinner's  lake, 
I  journey  to  these  healing  snows. 

"  I  stanch  with  ice  my  burning  breast, 
With  silence  balm  my  whirling  brain  ; 
O  Brandan  !  to  this  hour  of  rest 
That  Joppan  leper's  ease  was  pain." 

Tears  started  to  Saint  Brandan' s  eyes  ; 
He  bow'd  his  head,  he  breathed  a  prayer  — 
Then  look'd,  and  lo,  the  frosty  skies  ! 
The  iceberg,  and  no  Judas  there  ! 

The  island  of  St.  Brandan's  was  sometimes  supposed  to  lie  in 
the  Northern  Atlantic,  sometimes  farther  south.  It  often  ap 
pears  as  the  Fortunate  Isle  or  Islands,  "Insulae  Fortunatae  "  or 
"Beat*." 

On  some  early  maps  (1306  to  1471)  there  is  an  inlet  on  the 
western  coast  of  Ireland  called  "Lacus  Fortunatus,"  which  is 
filled  with  Fortunate  Islands  to  the  number  of  358  (Humboldt, 
"Examen,"  II.  p.  159),  and  in  one  map  of  1471  both  these 
and  the  supposed  St.  Brandan's  group  appear  in  different  parts 
of  the  ocean  under  the  same  name.  When  the  Canary  Islands 
were  discovered,  they  were  supposed  to  be  identical  with 
St.  Brandan's,  but  the  latter  was  afterwards  supposed  to  lie 
southeast  of  them.  After  the  discovery  of  the  Azores  various 
expeditions  were  sent  to  search  for  St.  Brandan's  until  about 
1721.  It  was  last  reported  as  seen  in  1759.  A  full  bibli- 


Notes  245 

ography  will  be  found  in  Winsor's  "Narrative  and  Critical 
History,"  I.  p.  48,  and  also  in  Humboldt's  "Examen,"  II. 
p.  163,  and  early  maps  containing  St.  Brandan's  will  be  found 
in  Winsor  (I.  pp.  54,  58).  The  first  of  these  is  Pizigani's 
(1387),  containing  "  Ysolas  dictae  Fortunatae,"  and  the  other 
that  of  Ortelius  (1587),  containing  "S.  Brandain." 

XIII.     HY-BRASAIL 

"THE  people  of  A  ran,  with  characteristic  enthusiasm,  fancy, 
that  at  certain  periods,  they  see  Hy-Brasail,  elevated  far  to  the 
west  in  their  watery  horizon.  This  has  been  the  universal  tra 
dition  of  the  ancient  Irish,  who  supposed  that  a  great  part  of 
Ireland  had  been  swallowed  by  the  sea,  and  that  the  sunken 
part  often  rose  and  was  seen  hanging  in  the  horizon  :  such 
was  the  popular  notion.  The  Hy-Brasail  of  the  Irish  is 
evidently  a  part  of  the  Atlantis  of  Plato ;  who,  in  his 
'Timaeus,'  says  that  that  island  was  totally  swallowed  up  by  a 
prodigious  earthquake."  (O'Flaherty's  "  Discourse  on  the 
History  and  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Islands  of  Aran,  lying 
off  the  West  Coast  of  Ireland,"  1824,  p.  139.) 

The  name  appeared  first  (1351)  on  the  chart  called  the 
Medicean  Portulana,  applied  to  an  island  off  the  Azores.  In 
Pizigani's  map  (1367)  there  appear  three  islands  of  this  name, 
two  off  the  Azores  and  one  off  Ireland.  From  this  time  the 
name  appears  constantly  in  maps,  and  in  1480  a  man  named 
John  Jay  went  out  to  discover  the  island  on  July  1 4,  and  re 
turned  unsuccessful  on  September  18.  He  called  it  Barsyle  or 
Brasylle  ;  and  Pedro  d'Ayalo,  the  Spanish  Ambassador,  says 
that  such  voyages  were  made  for  seven  years  "according  to  the 


246  Notes 

fancies  of  the  Genoese,  meaning  Sebastian  Cabot."  Humboldt 
thinks  that  the  wood  called  Brazil-wood  was  supposed  to  have 
come  from  it,  as  it  was  known  before  the  South  American 
Brazil  was  discovered. 

A  manuscript  history  of  Ireland,  written  about  1636,  in  the 
Library  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy,  says  that  Hy-Brasail  was 
discovered  by  a  Captain  Rich,  who  saw  its  harbor  but  could  never 
reach  it.  It  is  mentioned  by  Jeremy  Taylor  (  "  Dissuasives  from 
Popery,"  1667),  and  the  present  narrative  is  founded  partly 
on  an  imaginary  one,  printed  in  a  pamphlet  in  London,  1675, 
and  reprinted  in  Hardiman's  "  Irish  Minstrelsy  "  ( 1 83  i ),  II.  p. 
369.  The  French  Geographer  Royal,  M.  Tassin,  thinks  that  the 
island  may  have  been  identical  with  Porcupine  Bank,  once  above 
water.  In  Jeffrey's  atlas  (1776)  it  appears  as  "the  imaginary 
island  of  O' Brasil. "  "  Brazil  Rock  "  appears  on  a  chart  of  Purdy, 
1834  (Humboldt's  "Examen  Critique,"  II.  p.  163).  Two 
rocks  always  associated  with  it,  Mayda  and  Green  Rock,  appear 
on  an  atlas  issued  in  1 866.  See  bibliography  in  Winsor's  "  Nar 
rative  and" Critical  History,"!,  p.  49,  where  there  are  a  number 
of  maps  depicting  it  (I.  pp.  54-57).  The  name  of  the  island  is 
derived  by  Celtic  scholars  from  breas,  large,  and  /',  island  ;  or, 
according  to  O'Brien's  "Irish  Dictionary,"  its  other  form  of 
O'Brasile  means  a  large  imaginary  island  (Hardiman's  "Irish 
Minstrelsy,"  I.  p.  369).  There  are  several  families  named  Brazil 
in  County  Waterford,  Ireland  ("Transactions  of  the  Ossianic 
Society,  Dublin,"  1854,  I.  p.  8l)-  The  following  poem  about 
the  island,  by  Gerald  Griffin,  will  be  found  in  Sparling's  "  Irish 
Minstrelsy"  (1888),  p.  427:  — 


Notes  247 

HY-BRASAIL,  THE  ISLE  OF  THE  BLEST 

On  the  ocean  that  hollows  the  rocks  where  ye  dwell 
A  shadowy  land  has  appeared,  as  they  tell ; 
Men  thought  it  a  region  of  sunshine  and  rest, 
And  they  called  it  Hy-Brasail,  the  isle  of  the  blest. 
From  year  unto  year  on  the  ocean's  blue  rim, 
The  beautiful  spectre  showed  lovely  and  dim ; 
The  golden  clouds  curtained  the  deep  where  it  lay, 
And  it  looked  like  an  Eden  away,  far  away  ! 


A  peasant  who  heard  of  the  wonderful  tale, 
In  the  breeze  of  the  Orient  loosened  his  sail ; 
From  Ara,  the  holy,  he  turned  to  the  west, 
For  though  Ara  was  holy,  Hy-Brasail  was  blest. 
He  heard  not  the  voices  that  called  from  the  shore  — 
He  heard  not  the  rising  wind's  menacing  roar  ; 
Home,  kindred,  and  safety  he  left  on  that  day, 
And  he  sped  to  Hy-Brasail,  away,  far  away  ! 


Morn  rose  on  the  deep,  and  that  shadowy  isle, 
O'er  the  faint  rim  of  distance,  reflected  its  smile  ; 
Noon  burned  on  the  wave,  and  that  shadowy  shore 
Seemed  lovelily  distant,  and  faint  as  before  ; 
Lone  evening  came  down  on  the  wanderer's  track, 
And  to  Ara  again  he  looked  timidly  back  ; 
O  far  on  the  verge  of  the  ocean  it  lay, 
Yet  the  isle  of  the  blest  was  away,  far  away  ! 


Notes 

Rash  dreamer,  return  !    O  ye  winds  of  the  main, 
Bear  him  back  to  his  own  peaceful  Ara  again, 
Rash  fool  !  for  a  vision  of  fanciful  bliss, 
To  barter  thy  calm  life  of  labor  and  peace. 
The  warning  of  reason  was  spoken  in  vain  ; 
He  never  revisited  Ara  again  ! 
Night  fell  on  the  deep,  amidst  tempest  and  spray, 
And  he  died  on  the  waters,  away,  far  away  ! 

XIV.     ISLAND    OF   SATAN'S   HAND 

THE  early  part  of  this  narrative  is  founded  on  Professor 
O'Curry's  Lectures  on  the  manuscript  materials  of  Irish  history  ; 
it  being  another  of  those  "Imrama"  or  narratives  of  ocean 
expeditions  to  which  the  tale  of  St.  Brandan  belongs.  The 
original  narrative  lands  the  three  brothers  ultimately  in  Spain, 
and  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  most  of  what  we  know  of  the  island 
of  Satanaxio  or  Satanajio  —  which  remained  so  long  on  the 
maps  —  is  taken  from  an  Italian  narrative  of  three  other  brothers, 
cited  by  Formaleoni,  "II  Pellegrinaccio  di  tre  giovanni,"  by 
Christoforo  Armeno  (Gaffarel,  "  Les  lies  Fantastiques,"  p.  91). 
The  coincidence  is  so  peculiar  that  it  offered  an  irresistible 
temptation  to  link  the  two  trios  of  brothers  into  one  narrative 
and  let  the  original  voyagers  do  the  work  of  exploration. 
The  explanation  given  by  Gaffarel  to  the  tale  is  the  same  that 
I  have  suggested  as  possible.  He  says  in  "  lies  Fantastiques  de 
1'Atlantique"  (p.  12),  "S'il  nous  etait  permis  d'aventurer  une 
hypothese,  nous  croirions  voluntiers  que  les  navigateurs  de 
1'epoque  rencontrerent,  en  s'aventurant  dans  1'Atlantique, 
quelques-uns  de  ces  gigantesques  icebergs,  ou  montagnes  de 


Notes  249 

glace,  arraches  aux  banquises  du  pole  nord,  et  entraines  au 
sud  par  les  courants,  dont  la  rencontre,  assez  frequente,  est, 
meme  aujourd'hui,  tell-ement  redoutee  par  les  capitaines.  Ces 
icebergs,  quand  ils  se  heurtent  centre  un  navire,  le  coulent  a 
pic  ;  et  comme  ils  arrivent  a  1'improviste,  escortes  par  d'epais 
brouillards,  ils  paraissent  reellement  sortir  du  sein  des  flots, 
comme  sortait  la  main  de  Satan,  pour  precipiter  au  fond  de 
Pabime  matelots  et  navires."  As  to  the  name  itself  there  has 
been  much  discussion.  On  the  map  of  Bianco  (1436)  — 
reproduced  in  Winsor,  I.  p.  54  —  the  name  "  Ya  de  Laman- 
satanaxio ' '  distinctly  appears,  and  this  was  translated  by  both 
Formaleoni  and  Humboldt  as  meaning  "the  Island  of  the  Hand 
of  Satan."  D'Avezac  was  the  first  to  suggest  that  the  refer 
ence  was  to  two  separate  islands,  the  one  named  "  De  la  Man  " 
or  "Danman,"  and  the  other  "  Satanaxio."  He  further  sug 
gests  —  followed  by  Gaffarel  —  that  the  name  of  the  island  may 
originally  have  been  San  Atanagio,  thus  making  its  baptism  a 
tribute  to  St.  Athanasius  instead  of  to  Satan.  This  would  cer 
tainly  have  been  a  curious  transformation,  and  almost  as  unex 
pected  in  its  way  as  the  original  conversion  of  the  sinful  brothers 
from  outlaws  to  missionaries. 

XV.     ANTILLIA 

THE  name  Antillia  appears  first,  but  not  very  clearly,  on  the 
Pizigani  map  of  1367  ;  then  clearly  on  a  map  of  1424,  pre 
served  at  Weimar,  on  that  of  Bianco  in  1436,  and  on  the  globe 
of  Beheim  in  1492,  which  adds  in  an  inscription  the  story  of 
the  Seven  Bishops.  On  some  maps  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven 
teenth  centuries  there  appears  near  it  a  smaller  island  under  the 


250  Notes 

name  of  Sette  Cidade,  or  Sete  Ciudades,  which  is  properly 
another  name  for  the  same  island.  Toscanelli,  in  his  famous 
letter  to  Columbus,  recommended  Antillia  as  a  good  way-station 
for  his  voyage  to  India.  The  island  is  said  by  tradition  to  have 
been  re-discovered  by  a  Portuguese  sailor  in  1447.  Tradition 
says  that  this  sailor  went  hastily  to  the  court  of  Portugal  to 
announce  the  discovery,  but  was  blamed  for  not  having  re 
mained  longer,  and  so  fled.  It  was  supposed  to  be  "a  large, 
rectangular  island  extending  from  north  to  south,  lying  in  the 
mid  Atlantic  about  lat.  35  N."  An  ample  bibliography  will 
be  found  in  Winsor's  "Narrative  and  Critical  History,"  I. 
p.  48,  with  maps  containing  Antillia,  I.  pp.  54  (Pizigani's), 

56, 58. 

After  the  discovery  of  America,  Peter  Martyr  states  (in  1493) 
that  Hispaniola  and  the  adjacent  islands  were  "  Antillae  insular," 
meaning  that  they  were  identical  with  the  group  surrounding  the 
fabled  Antillia  (Winsor's  "Narrative  and  Critical  History,"  I. 
p.  49)  ;  and  Schoner,  in  the  dedicatory  letter  of  his  globe  of 
1523,  says  that  the  king  of  Castile,  through  Columbus,  has  dis 
covered  Antiglias  Hispaniam  Cubam  quoque.  It  was  thus  that  the 
name  Antilles  came  to  be  applied  to  the  islands  discovered  by  Co 
lumbus  ;  just  as  the  name  Brazil  was  transferred  from  an  imaginary 
island  to  the  new  continent,  and  the  name  Seven  Cities  was 
applied  to  the  pueblos  of  New  Mexico  by  those  who  discovered 
them.  (See  J.  H.  Simpson,  "Coronado's  March  in  Search  of 
the  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola,"  Smithsonian  Institution,  1869, 
pp.  209-340.) 

The  sailor  who  re-discovered  them  said  that  the  chief  desire 
of  the  people  was  to  know  whether  the  Moors  still  held  Spain 
(Gaffarel,  "  lies  Fantastiques,"  p.  3).  In  a  copy  of  "Ptolemy  " 


Notes  251 

addressed  to  Pope  Urban  VI.  about  1380,  before  the  alleged 
visit  of"  the  Portuguese,  it  was  stated  of  the  people  at  Antillia 
that  they  lived  in  a  Christian  manner,  and  were  most  prosperous, 
"Hie  populus  christianissime  vivit,  omnibus  divitiis  seculi  hujus 
plenus  "  (D'Avezac,  "  Nouvelles  Annales  des  voyages,"  1845, 
II.  P.  55)- 

It  was  afterwards  held  by  some  that  the  island  of  Antillia  was 
identical  with  St.  Michael  in  the  Azores,  where  a  certain  cluster 
of  stone  huts  still  bears  the  name  of  Seven  Cities,  and  the  same 
name  is  associated  with  a  small  lake  by  which  they  stand. 
(Humboldt's  "  Examen  Critique,"  Paris,  1837,  II.  p.  203; 
Gaffarel,  "lies  Fantastiques,"  p.  3.) 

XVI.     HARALD   THE   VIKING 

THE  tales  of  the  Norse  explorations  of  America  are  now 
accessible  in  many  forms,  the  most  convenient  of  these  being  in 
the  edition  of  E.  L.  Slafter,  published  by  the  Prince  Society. 
As  to  the  habits  of  the  Vikings,  the  most  accessible  authorities 
are  "The  Age  of  the  Vikings,"  by  Du  Chaillu,  and  "The 
Sea  Kings  of  Norway,"  by  Laing.  The  writings  of  the  late 
Professor  E.  N.  Horsford  are  well  known,  but  his  opinions  are 
not  yet  generally  accepted  by  students.  His  last  work,  "  Leif 's 
House  in  Vineland,"  with  his  daughter's  supplementary  essay 
on  "  Graves  of  the  Northmen,"  is  probably  the  most  interesting 
of  the  series  (Boston,  1893).  In  Longfellow's  "Saga  of  King 
Olaf"  (II.),  included  in  "Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn,"  there  is  a 
description  of  the  athletic  sports  practised  by  the  Vikings,  which 
are  moreover  described  with  the  greatest  minuteness  by  Du 
Chaillu. 


252  Notes 


XVII.     NORUMBEGA 

THE  narrative  of  Champlain's  effort  to  find  Norumbega  in 
1632  may  be  found  in  Otis's  "Voyages  of  Champlain  "  (II. 
p.  38),  and  there  is  another  version  in  the  Magazine  of  Ameri 
can  History  (I.  p.  321).  The  whole  legend  of  the  city  is 
well  analyzed  in  the  same  magazine  (I.  p.  14)  by  Dr.  De 
Costa  under  the  title  "The  Lost  City  of  New  England."  In 
another  volume  he  recurs  to  the  subject  (IX.  p.  168),  and 
gives  (IX.  p.  200)  a  printed  copy  of  David  Ingram's  narrative, 
from  the  original  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  He  also  discusses 
the  subject  in  Winsor 's  "  Narrative  and  Critical  History  "  (IV. 
p.  77,  etc.),  where  he  points  out  that  "the  insular  character  of 
the  Norumbega  region  is  not  purely  imaginary,  but  is  based  on 
the  fact  that  the  Penobscot  region  affords  a  continued  water 
course  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  which  was  travelled  by  the  Maine 
Indians."  Ramusio's  map  of  1559  represents  "  Nurumbega  " 
as  a  large  island,  well  defined  ( Winsor,  IV.  p.  91);  and  so 
does  that  of  Ruscelli  (Winsor,  IV.  p.  92),  the  latter  spelling  it 
"  Nurumberg."  Some  geographers  supposed  it  to  extend  as  far 
as  Florida.  The  name  was  also  given  to  a  river  (probably  the 
Penobscot)  and  to  a  cape.  The  following  is  Longfellow's 
poem  on  the  voyage  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert :  — 

SIR   HUMPHREY   GILBERT 

Southward  with  fleet  of  ice 

Sailed  the  corsair  Death  ; 
Wild  and  fast  blew  the  blast, 

And  the  east-wind  was  his  breath. 


Notes  253 


His  lordly  ships  of  ice 

Glisten  in  the  sun  ; 
On  each  side,  like  pennons  wide, 

Flashing  crystal  streamlets  run. 

His  sails  of  white  sea-mist 

Dripped  with  silver  rain  ; 
But  where  he  passed  there  were  cast 

Leaden  shadows  o'er  the  main. 

Eastward  from  Campobello 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  sailed  ; 

Three  days  or  more  seaward  he  bore, 
Then,  alas  !  the  land-wind  failed. 

Alas  !  the  land-wind  failed, 
And  ice-cold  grew  the  night ; 

And  nevermore,  on  sea  or  shore, 
Should  Sir  Humphrey  see  the  light. 

He  sat  upon  the  deck, 

The  Book  was  in  his  hand  ; 

"  Do  not  fear  !     Heaven  is  as  near," 
He  said,  "  by  water  as  by  land  !  " 

In  the  first  watch  of  the  night, 

Without  a  signal's  sound, 
Out  of  the  sea,  mysteriously, 

The  fleet  of  Death  rose  all  around. 


254  Notes 


The  moon  and  the  evening  star 
Were  hanging  in  the  shrouds  ; 

Every  mast,  as  it  passed, 

Seemed  to  rake  the  passing  clouds. 

They  grappled  with  their  prize, 
At  midnight  black  and  cold  ! 

As  of  a  rock  was  the  shock  ; 

Heavily  the  ground- swell  rolled. 

Southward  through  day  and  dark, 
They  drift  in  close  embrace, 

With  mist  and  rain,  o'er  the  open  main  ; 
Yet  there  seems  no  change  of  place. 

Southward,  forever  southward, 
They  drift  through  dark  and  day  ; 

And  like  a  dream,  in  the  Gulf-Stream 
Sinking,  vanish  all  away. 


XVIII.     GUARDIANS   OF  THE   ST.    LAWRENCE 

FOR  authorities  for  this  tale  see  "  Voyages  of  Samuel  de 
Champlain,"  translated  by  Charles  Pomeroy  Otis,  Ph.D.,  with 
memoir  by  the  Rev.  E.  F.  Slafter,  A.M.,  Boston,  1880  (I.  pp. 
116,  289,  II.  p.  52).  The  incident  of  the  disguised  Indians 
occurred,  however,  to  the  earlier  explorer,  Jacques  Cartier. 
(See  my  "Larger  History  of  the  United  States,"  p.  112.) 


Notes  255 


XIX.     ISLAND   OF   DEMONS 

THE  tale  of  the  Isle  of  Demons  is  founded  on  a  story  told 
first  by  Marguerite  of  Navarre  in  her  "  Heptameron  "  (LXVII. 
Nouvelle),  and  then  with  much  variation  and  amplification  by 
the  very  untrustworthy  traveller  Thevet  in  his  "  Cosmographie  " 
(1571),  Livre  XXIII.  c.  vi.  The  only  copy  of  the  latter  work 
known  to  me  is  in  the  Carter-Brown  Library  at  Providence, 
R.I.,  and  the  passage  has  been  transcribed  for  me  through  the 
kindness  of  A.  E.  Winship,  Esq.,  librarian,  who  has  also 
sent  me  a  photograph  of  a  woodcut  representing  the  lonely 
woman  shooting  at  a  bear.  A  briefer  abstract  of  the  story 
is  in  Winsor's  "Narrative  and  Critical  History  "  (IV.  p.  66, 
note),  but  it  states,  perhaps  erroneously,  that  Thevet  knew 
Marguerite  only  through  the  Princess  of  Navarre,  whereas  that 
author  claims  —  though  his  claim  is  never  worth  much  —  that 
he  had  the  story  from  the  poor  woman  herself,  "  La  pauvre 
femme  estant  arriuvee  en  France  .  .  .  et  venue  en  la  ville  de 
Nautron,  pays  de  Perigort  lors  que  ?y  estois,  me  feit  le  disc  ours 
de  toutes  ses  fortunes  pass'ees" 

The  Island  of  Demons  appears  on  many  old  maps  which  may  be 
found  engraved  in  Winsor,  IV.  pp.  91,  92,  93,  100,  373,  etc.  ; 
also  as  "Isla  de  demonios  "  in  Sebastian  Cabot's  map  (1544) 
reprinted  in  Dr.  S.  E.  Dawson's  valuable  "Voyages  of  the 
Cabots,"  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada 
for  1897.  He  also  gives  Ruysch's  map  (1508),  in  which  a 
cluster  of  islands  appears  in  the  same  place,  marked  "  Insulae 
daemonum."  Harrisse,  in  his  "  Notes  sur  la  Nouvelle  France  " 
(p.  278),  describes  the  three  sufferers  as  having  been  abandoned 


256  Notes 

by  Roberval  a  trente  six  lieues  des  cotes  de  Canada,  dans  une  isle 
deserte  quifut  depuis  design'ee  sous  le  nom  de  I' Isle  de  la  Demoi 
selle,  pres  de  I* embouchure  de  la  Riviere  St.  Paul  ou  des  Saumons. 
I  have  not,  however,  been  able  to  identify  this  island.  Parkman 
also  says  ("Pioneers  of  France,"  p.  205)  that  Roberval's  pilot, 
in  his  routier,  or  logbook,  speaks  often  of  "Les  Isles  de  la 
Demoiselle,"  evidently  referring  to  Marguerite.  The  brief 
account  by  the  Princess  of  Navarre  follows :  — 

LXVIlK  NOUVELLE 

Une  pauvre  femme,  pour  sauver  la  vie  de  son  mary,  hasarda  la 
sienne,  et  ne  1'abandonna  jusqu'a  la  mort. 

C'est  que  faisant  le  diet  Robertval  un  voiage  sur  la  mer, 
duquel  il  estoit  chef  par  le  commandement  du  Roy  son  maistre, 
en  1'isle  de  Canadas  ;  auquel  lieu  avoit  delibere,  si  1' air  du  pais 
euste  este  commode,  de  demourer  et  faire  villes  et  chasteaulx  ; 
en  quoy  il  fit  tel  commencement,  que  chacun  peut  sfavoir.  Et, 
pour  habituer  le  pays  de  Chrestiens,  mena  avecq  luy  de  toutes 
sortes  d' artisans,  entre  lesquelz  y  avoit  un  homme,  qui  fut  si 
malheureux,  qu'il  trahit  son  maistre  et  le  mist  en  dangier  d'estre 
prins  des  gens  du  pays.  Mais  Dieu  voulut  que  son  entreprinse 
fut  si  tost  congneue,  qu'elle  ne  peut  nuyre  au  cappitaine  Robert 
val,  lequel  feit  prendre  ce  meschant  traistre,  le  voulant  pugnir 
comme  il  P  avoit  merite  ;  ce  qui  eust  este  faict,  sans  sa  femme 
qui  avoit  suivy  son  mary  par  les  perilz  de  la  mer ;  et  ne  le 
voulut  abandonner  a  la  mort,  mais  avecq  force  larmes  feit  tant, 
avecq  le  cappitaine  et  toute  la  compaignye,  que,  tant  pour  la 
pitie  d'icelle  que  pour  le  service  qu'elle  leur  avoit  faict,  luy 
accorda  sa  requeste  qui  fut  telle,  que  le  mary  et  la  femme  furent 


Notes  257 

laissez  en  une  petite  isle,  sur  la  mer,  ou  il  n'habitoit  que  bestes 
saulvaiges ;  et  leur  fut  permis  de  porter  avecq  eulx  ce  dont  ilz 
avoient  necessite.  Les  pauvres  gens,  se  trouvans  tous  seulz  en 
la  compaignye  des  bestes  saulvaiges  et  cruelles,  n'eurent  recours 
que  a  Dieu  seul,  qui  avoit  este  toujours  le  ferme  espoir  de  ceste 
pauvre  femme.  Et,  comme  celle  qui  avoit  toute  consolation  en 
Dieu,  porta  pour  sa  saulve  garde,  nourriture  et  consolation  le 
Nouveau  Testament,  lequel  elle  lisoit  incessamment.  Et,  au 
demourant,  avecq  son  mary,  mettoit  peine  d'accoustrer  un  petit 
logis  le  mieulx  qui'l  leur  estoit  possible  ;  et,  quand  les  lyons 
et  aultres  bestes  en  aprochoient  pour  les  devorer,  le  mary  avecq 
sa  harquebuze,  et  elle,  avecq  les  pierres,  se  defendoient  si  bien, 
que,  non  suellement  les  bestes  ne  les  osoient  approcher,  mais 
bien  souvent  en  tuerent  de  tres-bonnes  a  manger  ;  ainsy,  avecq 
telles  chairs  et  les  herbes  du  pais,  vesquirent  quelque  temps, 
quand  le  pain  leur  fut  failly.  A  la  longue,  le  mary  ne  peut 
porter  telle  nourriture  ;  et,  a  cause  des  eaues  qu'ilz  buvoient, 
devint  si  enfle,  que  en  peu  de  temps  il  mourut,  n'aiant  service 
ne  consolation  que  sa  femme,  laquelle  le  servoit  de  medecin  et 
de  confesseur  ;  en  sorte  qu'il  passa  joieusement  de  ce  desert  en 
la  celeste  patrie.  Et  la  pauvre  femme,  demouree  seulle,  Pen- 
terra  le  plus  profond  en  terre  qu'il  fut  possible ;  si  est-ce  que 
les  bestes  en  eurent  incontinent  le  sentyment,  qui  vindrent  pour 
manger  la  charogne.  Mais  la  pauvre  femme,  en  sa  petite 
maisonnette,  de  coups  de  harquebuze  defendoit  que  la  chair  de 
son  mary  n'eust  tel  sepulchre.  Ainsy  vivant,  quant  au  corps, 
de  vie  bestiale,  et  quant  a  1'esperit,  de  vie  angelicque,  passoit  son 
temps  en  lectures,  contemplations,  prieres  et  oraisons  ayant  un 
esperit  joieux  et  content,  dedans  un  corps  emmaigry  et  demy  mort. 
Mais  Celluy  qui  n'abandonne  jamais  les  siens,  et  qui,  au  deses- 
s 


258  Notes 

poir  des  autres,  monstre  sa  puissance,  ne  permist  que  la  vertu 
qu'il  avoit  myse  en  ceste  femme  fust  ignoree  des  hommes,  mais 
voulut  qu'elle  fust  congneue  a  sa  gloire  ;  et  fiet  que,  au  bout  de 
quelque  temps,  un  des  navires  de  ceste  armee  passant  devant 
ceste  isle,  les  gens  qui  estoient  dedans  adviserent,  quelque  fumee 
qui  leur  feit  souvenir  de  ceulx  qui  y  avoient  este  laissez,  et 
delibererent  d'aller  veoir  ce  que  Dieu  en  avoit  faict.  La  pauvre 
femme,  voiant  approcher  el  navire,  se  tira  au  bort  de  la  mer, 
auquel  lieu  la  trouverent  a  leur  arrivee.  Et,  apres  en  avoir 
rendu  louange  a  Dieu,  les  mena  en  sa  pauvre  maisonnette,  et 
leur  monstra  de  quoy  elle  vivoit  durant  sa  demeure ;  ce  que  leur 
eust  este  incroiable,  sans  la  congnoissance  qu'ilz  avoient  que 
Dieu  est  puissant  de  nourrir  en  un  desert  ses  serviteurs,  comme 
au  plus  grandz  festins  du  monde.  Et,  ne  pouvant  demeurer  en 
tel  lieu,  emmenerent  la  pauvre  femme  avecq  eulx  droict  a  la 
Rochelle,  ou,  apres  un  navigage,  ilz  arriverent.  Et  quand  ilz 
eurent  faict  entendre  aux  habitans  la  fidelite  et  perseverance  de 
ceste  femme,  elle  fut  receue  a  grand  honneur  de  toutes  les 
Dames,  qui  voluntiers  luy  baillerent  leurs  filles  pour  aprendre  a 
lire  et  a  escripre.  Et,  a  cest  honneste  mestier-la,  gaigna  le 
surplus  de  sa  vie,  n'aiant  autre  desir  que  d'exhorter  un  chaucun 
a  1 'am our  et  confiance  de  Nostre  Seigneur,  se  proposant  pour 
exemple  la  grande  misericorde  dont  il  avoit  use  envers  elle. 

XX.     BIMINI 

PARKMAN  says  expressly  that  "  Ponce  de  Leon  found  the 
Island  of  Bimini,"  but  it  is  generally  mentioned  as  having  been 
imaginary,  and  is  not  clearly  identified  among  the  three  thousand 
islands  and  rocks  of  the  Bahamas.  Peter  Martyr  placed  the 


Notes  259 

Fountain  of  Youth  in  Florida,  which  he  may  have  easily  sup 
posed  to  be  an  island.  Some  of  the  features  of  my  description 
are  taken  from  the  strange  voyage  of  Cabeza  da  Vaca,  which 
may  be  read  in  Buckingham  Smith's  translation  of  his  narrative 
(Washington,  D.C.,  1851),  or  in  a  more  condensed  form  in 
Henry  Kingsley's  "  Tales  of  Old  Travel,"  or  in  my  own 
"Book  of  American  Explorers"  (N.Y.,  Longmans,  1894). 


STORIES  FROM  AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


Each  Crown  8vo.    Cloth.    $1.50. 


De  Soto  and  his  Men  in  the  Land  of  Florida. 

By  GRACE  KING,  Author  of  "  New  Orleans :  the  Place  and  the  Peo 
ple,"  "Jean  Baptiste  Le  Moyne,  Siei 
etc.     Illustrated  by  GEORGE  GIBBS. 


pie,"  "Jean  Baptiste  Le  Moyne,  Sieur  de  Bienville,"  "  Balcony  Stories," 
Illustrated  by  GEORGE  GIBBS. 


A  story  based  upon  Spanish  and  Portuguese  accounts  of  "  Conquest "  by  the 
brilliant  armada  which  sailed  under  De  Soto  in  1538  to  subdue  this  country.  Miss 
King  gives  most  entertaining  stories  of  the  invaders'  struggles  and  of  their  final 
demoralized  rout;  while  her  account  of  the  native  tribes  is  a  most  attractive  feature 
of  the  narrative. 

Yankee  Ships  and  Yankee  Sailors.     Tales  of  1812. 

By  JAMES  BARNES.      Illustrated  by  R.  F.  ZOGBAUM  and  C.  T. 
CHAPMAN. 

"  Mr.  Barnes  knows  how  to  tell  a  story  as  well  as  how  to  write  history.  His 
style  is  terse  and  full  of  movement;  his  book  one  that  old  and  young  may  read  with 
zest."  —  Detroit  Free  Press. 


Southern  Soldier  Stories. 

By  GEORGE  GARY  EGGLESTON,  Author  of  "  A  Rebel's  Recollec 
tions,"  etc.,  etc.  Illustrated  by  R.  F.  ZOGBAUM. 

"  Faithfully  told  stories,  bearing  every  evidence  of  absolute  truth.  .  .  .  One's 
pulses  quicken  as  he  becomes  acquainted  with  the  heroic  deeds  of  those  brave  Ameri 
cans,  who  were  on  the  losing  s?de,  fighting  an  impossible  cause;  he  sorrows  with 
those  who  felt  the  tragedy  of  it  all.  It  is  a  volume  which  every  boy  and  girl,  as  well 
as  every  man  and  woman  in  America,  may  read  with  profitable  interest." 

—  The  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat. 
"  Such  capital  reading  that  no  one  can  fail  to  enjoy  them." 

—  New  Orleans  Picayune. 

Tales  of  the  Enchanted  Islands  of  the  Atlantic. 

By  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON,  Author  of  "  Young  Folks' 
History  of  the  United  States,"  "  Malbone,"  "  Cheerful  Yesterdays,"  etc. 
Illustrated  by  ALBERT  HERTER. 

Legends  with  which  the  people  of  Europe  were  for  many  centuries  fed  in  regard 
to  the  countries  beyond  the  seas  now  known  as  America.  "  No  national  history  has 
been  less  prosaic  in  its  earlier  traditions,"  says  Colonel  Kigginson,  who  relates  in  a 
manner  which  shows  strong  sympathy  and  learned  research  these  wonderful  stories 
which  for  a  thousand  years  were  told  of  a  mysterious  island  in  the  Atlantic. 


THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY, 

66   FIFTH  AVENUE,   NEW  YORK. 


STORIES  FROM  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Of  Interest  to  Every  American. 


Among  other  Volumes  to  follow  are: 

Buccaneers  and  Pirates  of  Our  Coasts. 

By  FRANK  R.  STOCKTON,  Author  of  "  Rudder  Grange,"  etc.,  etc. 

Illustrated  by  G.  VARIAN  and  G.  W.  CLINEDINST. 

Stories  of  the  rise  and  decline  of  buccaneering  and  piracy  in  our  West  Indian 
waters.  Spanish  exactions  grew  so  monstrous  in  the  seventeenth  century  that  Eng 
lish,  French,  and  Dutch  combined  against  their  excesses.  The  buccaneers,  who 
were  the  result  of  the  combination,  became  later  pirates  for  private  gain.  Mr.  Stock 
ton's  quaint  humor  brightens  the  stories  of  their  dark  deeds  in  characteristic  style. 
The  book  is  unique. 

The  Story  of  Old  Fort  Loudon. 

A  Tale  of  the  Cherokees  and  the  Pioneers  of  Tennessee,  1760.  By 
CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK,  Author  of  "  Where  the  Battle  was 
Fought,"  "  The  Prophet  of  the  Great  Smoky  Mountain,"  etc.  Illus 
trated  by  E.  C.  PEIXOTTO. 

A  narrative  of  the  life  of  the  pioneers  of  Tennessee  and  their  fortunes  at  the  hands 
of  the  Cherokees  in  the  uprising  of  1760.  The  brilliant  Tennessee  landscape  and  the 
old  frontier  fort  serve  as  a  background  to  this  picture  of  Indian  craft  and  guile  and 
pioneer  hardships  and  pleasures. 


Early  Canadian  Explorers. 


By  GILBERT  PARKER,  Author  of  "  Pierre  and  his  People,"  "  A 

Romany  of  the  Snows,"  etc.,  etc. 

Stories  of  men  who  made  history  in  the  old  days  of  the  rule  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  —  a  comparatively  unknown,  yet  most  fascinating  chapter  in  American 
history,  of  which  Mr.  Parker's  short  stories  have  given  us  glimpses  from  time  to  time. 

Californian  History  and  Exploration. 

By  CHARLES  H.  SHINN. 

From  the  snows  of  the  north  to  the  orange  groves  of  Lower  California  is  a  strong 
contrast,  but  just  as  the  old  trapper  and  the  "company's  agent"  haunt  one  in  the 
north  like  ghosts  from  an  old  past,  so  in  the  ruined  vineyards  of  the  old  "  'dobe  mis 
sions  "  arc  the  haunting  footsteps  of  their  earliest  settlers,  the  Spanish  fathers,  and 
an  equally  fascinating  heritage  of  historical  records. 

Tales  of  the  Great  Lakes. 

By  C.  G.  D.  ROBERTS. 

Other  Volumes  are  to  follow. 


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